Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we are looking at within, like, this -- I would say this spring. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Similarly, the Indigenous capacity building program, there is some discussion around outcomes of looking into and evaluating that program. And the business plan says it should be due in March of this year. Can I get an update on that, please, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, that will be available mid-summer. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Great Slave.
Okay. Sorry, I am just scribbling this down, Mr. Chair.
In addition to those two pieces, I did note as well that the grants and contribution policy had many mentions throughout the business plan and that things were going to be posted -- the work is going to be posted on ITI's website imminently. Can I have an update on that work too, please, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, that will be done in March. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And some further questions on this, and the Minister has heard me ask them before. Is there any contemplation on how the updated grants and contributions policy in ITI could be shared and applied throughout the GNWT such that other policy shops could learn from it? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, both from a political and operations level, we'll make sure that it is shared. So I will make sure that I share it with my colleagues at the Cabinet table. And in addition to that, the deputy minister will be sharing it with her colleagues as well. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further for me.
Okay, thank you. Is there any other Members that have questions? Member from Yellowknife North.
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.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, yes, this was -- this SEA program review has happened over the last couple of years and the SEA program is a partnership between HSS, ECE, and ITI. A number of these considerations would require additional resourcing. So those are all pieces that we're considering. And this will be rolled into some of the decision -- that decision-making in the Mineral Resources Act in regards to the SEA program under that umbrella. So we still have a bit of work to do on what actions we will be taking, which ones not. And I think that, yes, it is our intention to make that final report public. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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.
Yes, thank you. So yes, a bit more on the SEA program, we've learned a lot about the SEA since the diamond mines started and these SEAs are 20 years old, and they're not very consistent between the three of them. Some of them contemplate the different phases of a mine, so construction, operations, closure. Other ones don't. Some have Indigenous targets for employment, others don't. Our hope is that with the Mineral Resources Act, there will be some standardization where we can actually consider what is appropriate for targets to the different mine phases. Because we always know, for example in construction, we'll have a surge, and we can't, you know, bring all that capacity in. So the intention is to learn from that. So what we'll bring into the next generation of mines will be really important from what we learned through the diamond mines. We will publish this year's reports in June about, and that actually sets out targets and how the projects are performing. We do know they exceed in the procurement piece. So we know where the work is needed in that partnership approach is on the employment side. As the Minister said, you know, getting communities ready, knowing what their workforce needs are through the different phases of mining is all part of making that a successful outcome for both of us. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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.
Now with the mine closure, like I said, my region is going to be impacted more. So now with the mine closure, do we still -- are we still going to employ people from the south knowing that we need -- you know, the family needs to survive or that rely on the mine, are we still going to keep those southern workers? You know, have them working here rather than using 100 percent of northern resident workers? It doesn't say here about the progress. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, this is in regards to the staff of Diavik Diamond Mine that are employed by the mine. And so we've worked closely with Diavik to participate, for example in their career fairs, made sure that through our different available programs within especially ITI and ECE that mine workers are made aware of them and have our support of our staff to apply on them if they want to take advantage of them. Every time I do sit down with all of the diamond mines and speak with them, we talk about the importance of maintaining NWT residents as much as possible, and this is a commitment that they continuously make, is doing their best to maintain their northern workforce. But at the end of the day, I don't have control over who they keep on their mine site and what staff they require at the end of the day. It might be an issue of, for example if they have five heavy equipment operators they're supposed to and have committed to maintaining the NWT-resident heavy equipment operators and letting go of the southern ones, but if some of the workers are of, you know -- I don't know -- whatever position and there's only a southern worker in it and then not a northern one, then they would have to maintain that person in that position for the safe operation of the mine. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. You know, I've heard, and I am sure there must be some other Members too that heard from their constituents saying that, you know, the older workers, they've said it many times that they train -- they don't mind training their own Indigenous but not others because then they take over the jobs, you know, like, and then our young people lose out. So that's why some of them had an issue with it. So that's why I am asking, like, if it's 100 percent northern residents that were employed. And I know a lot of them had issue with that and I thought I'd just -- I'd mention that in here.
Another one too -- because here you have a number here, northern employment at the three diamond mines was 32.1 in 2024 and at the same time 16 percent was Indigenous worker. So does this 32 percent includes the Indigenous, or is that a number by itself? Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the northern employment at the three diamond mines of 32.1 percent, that's NWT residents, and then Indigenous employment of NWT Indigenous persons at the mine was 16 percent.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.
Okay, thank you. Thank you for that answer. And another one here is that same thing on the same page, northern companies in 2024, you know, was nearly at $800 million. Northern companies that -- this is regarding their procurement. And procurement with northern Indigenous company was at $456 million. This is northern Indigenous companies. How big are some of these Indigenous companies? And it would have been nice -- because I know for the impact benefit agreement with the Tlicho, they're -- you know, for the procurement, they're considered first in my region so -- and if they're -- you know, for whatever reason that, okay, due to capacity or whatever it is, but then they can, you know, go with it or not. So it only mentioned Indigenous companies but I just wanted to know about small business, you know, small northern Indigenous business that consists of one or two people. Do we have a number for this as well? You know, I mean, northern Indigenous companies it doesn't say. It just, you know -- it would have been nice if there was a large to small, if it was identified in this business plan. So that way we have an idea of, you know, who and where. And it should have been by region as well too, because I know that every region needs money. Every region needs -- they have families and a lot of them rely on -- if they're an entrepreneur, you know, they need the business. We know that. You know that too, so. I am just asking that if there's a breakdown or is there any other information about the northern Indigenous companies and northern Indigenous companies as mentioned here for 2024. Thank you.
