'No way' feds can ignore need for Mackenzie Valley Highway: N.W.T. premier

The N.W.T. wants a piece of the pie — a big one. 

That's the message Premier R.J. Simpson and the Council of Leaders is bringing to Ottawa this week in a series of meetings with federal ministers. 

Emergency planning, housing and health care are all on table. With a recent announcement of support for communities due to a lack of barges this summer, climate change, infrastructure and transportation are also top of mind. 

Simpson spoke with the CBC's Hilary Bird on The Trailbreaker Thursday morning. Here's their conversation. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What was the main message you shared with your federal counterparts?

One of the main things we wanted to impart on the federal government is that we are here as the Council of Leaders. So this isn't the GNWT coming to Ottawa and bringing Indigenous governments with us. This is the Council of Leaders, made up of all the the public government and the Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories, coming to Ottawa with a united message for the federal government.

That message is that the interests of the N.W.T. are aligned with national interests. There's a lot of focus on the North, a lot of focus on the Arctic. And Canada is, I hope, finally coming to realize that the types of nation-building investments that they've made across the rest of Canada, it's time to make those in the North so that we can become contributors to the nation in ways we haven't before. Through things like investments in our critical minerals, to ensure that we can start developing new mines and bring new prosperity to the North and become part of that supply chain for green energy and green technology that is needed when we're making investments in other places in Canada, in battery plants and electric vehicle plants and things like that.

Premier, let's turn to yesterday's announcement. The barges to Norman Wells and Tulita,  and parts of the Sahtu were cancelled in May. Why has it taken the government so long to finally give support to these communities?

This work has been ongoing for quite a while. We wanted to make sure that we were tailoring programs and targeting investments for the greatest impact, and that work is still ongoing as well. We're still looking at what else we can do to assist residents. 

Yesterday's announcement offers $1.8 million to support businesses and governments. How do you think this funding will be passed on to community members?

Well, we're hopeful that the businesses involved are going to ensure that the support they're receiving from the [territorial] government is passed on to the residents. You know, the business owners are residents too; they're feeling the impact. These are friends and neighbours that are being impacted. And we also have enhanced programs with our seniors home heating subsidy and income assistance to directly benefit residents and ensure that they're not feeling the entire cost of some of those cost increases.

We have been hearing from climate scientists that this may be our new normal. What is the plan to make sure people in these communities can continue to feed their children, to heat their homes, not just this year, but next year and into the future?

So for the communities served by the GNWT in terms of the fuel resupply, we ensured that on the winter road this year, we brought enough fuel up to get us through to the next winter road season, in case there were barge cancellations or delays. Norman Wells is really feeling the main impact of this. 

Of course, there are impacts felt around the region because of the hike, the higher costs associated with the air travel and things like that. But there are ways to mitigate this in the future. And that's ensuring that we are using the winter road more effectively. To that end, we are putting more effort into the winter road, more maintenance and more enforcement on the road to ensure that we can have that open for as long as possible and get as many goods up there as possible as well. 

In the long term, of course, we are looking at advancing the Mackenzie Valley Highway and we're moving quite aggressively on that. That was part of what I was here to bring to the feds, as well. So every federal minister I've spoken with knows the Mackenzie Valley Highway project, knows what it's all about. And now they're coming to realize the absolute necessity of it.

How do you know that they're realizing the absolute necessity of it? Have we had any promises for federal support from this meeting?

No, we didn't get the promises yet. This was really to come in to educate the ministers, and we've been working in the background. Our officials have been educating the federal officials so that the ministers are briefed up. But we've had discussions with a number of ministers, and you could tell that they were recognizing the importance of it. It's hard to deny the need for it when you see things like automotive fuel and heating fuel skyrocketing, these extraordinary costs. There's no way that they can really ignore this.

I want to move now to housing. Earlier in the week, we heard here on the show from the Salvation Army's Tony Brushett about the need for more shelter space and to plan for more long term housing solutions. What did you tell the federal government about homelessness in the North?

Housing is one of the areas that we brought forward to the federal government. In the North, we do need to address issues of homelessness. We actually have a lot of shelter beds per capita in the North, but we're missing that transitional housing part. So we're really looking for support from the federal government to enhance our transitional housing support, so that the folks who are in the shelter who could be in transitional housing actually get that opportunity. So they're one step closer to that independence that everyone deserves.

You said that we have quite a few shelter beds in the North, but we are hearing that the Salvation Army, in particular, is having to turn away over a dozen people a night and there are concerns about people surviving in the cold outside. What is your reaction to that?

Yeah, we have a lot of shelter beds per capita, compared to the rest of Canada. But you're right, we don't have enough housing for people. We don't have enough beds, warm beds for people to sleep in. And so they are turning people away. And so we've been working with the Salvation Army, looking at how we can expand their capacity for some shelter beds relatively quickly, but also how we can get some transitional housing in place as well so that we can alleviate the pressure that the shelters are feeling.

Do you have a sense of when we could hear about the potential funding for new beds, given the below-freezing temperatures we're seeing here in the capital?

We're trying to move very quickly, and so I'm hopeful in the coming weeks, we're going to be able to make some announcements. 

I know that you met with federal leaders. Have you been meeting with anyone else from any other parties?

No, we haven't been meeting with the other parties. I did meet with the party leaders when they came up to Yellowknife over the summer and I believe that there was a meeting with some of the Indigenous governments and the NDP leader.