Bob Bromley

Have we been provided with a report on what we found with the other research with the previous dollars that have been spent on this file?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People across the NWT are concerned about this government’s direction. I can’t help but agree. Many have observed a distressing alignment with the approach of our federal government under its present leadership. Government communications clearly reveal it doesn’t care what Members think or what the public thinks. A recent example is the surprising revelation that despite a 60 percent increase in our debt limit last year, our Finance Minister has initiated actions to seek an even higher debt limit. Not only no debate, but not even bothering to tell the elected...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question. So we’re saving this because of efficiencies realized through our energy saving measures. What period of time is this for and would we know how many facilities this has been provided from? I’m trying to get a sense of what this means of all the work we’ve been doing. Thank you.

Okay, and thanks for that information. There are a couple of big costs there, for sure. Now, we’re just starting this, I guess, with the liquid natural gas. Can we expect that these total energy costs will remain higher like this and we can expect additional requests or that our budgets will be bigger for Housing Corporation utilities in those areas? Thank you.

So just to confirm, will this take us to the end of the fiscal year, the implementation date of April 1st, or are we spending more than the $26-something million to do this work. Thank you.

I think it falls under that be careful what you ask for. This is the sort of thing that many governments are pursuing now, to the cost of their residents and especially to the cost of local sustainability, and that’s why I raised this question. I will be voting against this bill.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to confirm that these dollars are part of the 23 or 25 million that the federal government is providing for our costs of implementing devolution. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was just wondering: With respect to the residency and the agreement in trade, does this essentially mean that if we have a local dentist in a community that’s barely big enough to support a dentist, but through good fortune we’ve managed to capture one and have him reside there, that now another dentist can come in and undercut this dentist by avoiding the steep costs of maintaining infrastructure locally and employees locally? Is that in fact what this is doing? Is it enabling non-resident dentists to do this under the agreement in trade?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister. There has been a lot of work done and I supported that and appreciated that. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be getting us where we want to go.

Just following up on my last, what action is the Minister taking to discuss this topic with our neighbouring jurisdictions, particularly Nunavut and the Yukon? Certainly, they have to be having similar issues and maybe they will more and more. So there’s an opportunity, maybe, for northern Canada to have a special dispensation where we can actually collect income tax from dollars made here. Mahsi.

Mr. Chair, thanks for the Minister’s response. It sounds like he is on top of the situation. It sounds pretty challenging and expensive.

The availability of avgas sounds like a big one. Do we have a sense of how much of our… These exceptional budgets – and I assume this happened last year too; I think I remember the Minister mentioning it – how much of these exceptional costs are due to the whole avgas issue versus more severe fire seasons? Thank you.