Bob Bromley

I asked because sitting on the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, and I think it’s okay to speak about what we don’t know in those committees, I have not seen any briefing whatsoever on what’s going on with this 34 days before its implementation, and there’s been a huge about-face from the last time we were given a briefing. I have serious concerns about costs here.

The people aren’t here. The structure is not here. Is the budget here in this document?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One thing I meant to get to was on the sport hunt outfitter marketing support. I, and I know other Members, have met with the outfitters in this area and they’re basically edging on bankruptcy because of the loss of caribou. There was some hope that the herd would recover in time to rescue these businesses, and some of them have basically put their lifetime’s worth of savings and investments into the business. It’s now looking like this is not feasible within the timescale that would allow them to recover anything.

Would the Minister be willing to work with these few...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to ask: I don’t see in the organizational chart, which is at the beginning of the document here, where the regulator is. I understand the Minister is taking on the regulator role from the NEB and I didn’t see a recognition of that office in the personnel summary either. I don’t know whether it’s in corporate management, and I’d be happy to ask my questions on that wherever it’s appropriate, but I thought I would bring it up at my first general opportunity here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to start by expressing appreciation to my colleague Mr. Dolynny for bringing this motion forward.

Frankly, I’ve found the discussion so far refreshing. A lot of this information is being presented with the clarity that we haven’t had before because of the interviewing, questioning skills of Members. So I’m learning and I appreciate that. I will be supporting this motion because I think it’s something we’ve talked about without doing. I know that the Department of Finance, the Minister has been interested in that from time to time and probably has done a little bit...

That’s all I had. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I know what I’ve been paying for hunting licences and I know they increased in recent years and I’m sure the revenue is a lot more than that. This is nothing short of shameful. Does the Minister plan on upping these fees?

I wasn’t jumping back and forth between rows enough to completely follow that, but I guess I did understand that the estimate for this year of $105 million, roughly, was about $38 million lower than expected, and I’m wondering how we could possibly make such a high projection there. Is that us who do that? Is that the GNWT that makes that projection?

Thank you for the details there, to the deputy minister and the Minister. I guess the people of Whati are incredibly patient people. They’ve been working at this for a long, long time and I just hope we can get something on the ground there. I know the expense that they’ve got and sitting on an amazing power source has got to be extremely frustrating.

My last question is the $200,000 for the Great Bear project, I know we’ve tried a few different things there. Where are we at on that? Do we have a specific project in mind that we’re supporting here? Thank you.

That seems pretty clear. Much clearer than the process I’ve experienced to date. I believe not only myself but many Members have requested input on where the other 25 percent goes, and we never really had that opportunity other than this general, you know, the dollars disappear into the budget sort of thing. I’m clear on that. Thank you.

The petroleum fees, $10,000 seems quite modest, and I know we don’t have much petroleum production, obviously. About a third of the egg levy. What are those for? I know we’re busy fracking and doing all kinds of stuff out there. Is that what the federal...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we’re going to grow 2 to 3 percent in our base and our population is stable to declining. That seems like not too shabby a deal. In fact, it seems more positive to me and everybody should be sitting in such a pretty situation.

I just noticed the Canada Health Transfer, again a huge increase here, something like $10 million from the main estimates last year. What’s going on with that one? Thank you.