Statements in Debates
Thank you. I’m glad to hear the Minister is talking to our people. Building transmission lines is extremely expensive. ATCO, during the most recent Taltson fiasco, came up with about $750,000 per kilometre. Now we’re talking about building grids to the South at that rate. So that puts us in the many millions of dollars, in addition to our 30 cent kilowatt hour of power cost, so now we add that to that cost to sell our power to the South. Clearly, that’s not about to happen.
I’d like to ask the Premier what the cost of a transmission line to the South would be. What are the estimates?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier. I’d like to follow up on the discussion that he had with my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen yesterday on power and hydro grids and so on.
As we know, we’re approaching 25 to 30 cents, possibly greater – we have stipulated increases in our rates in this part of the Northwest Territories – whereas provincial rates are in the order of six or eight cents. I’m very disappointed that the Premier would encourage the impression that the Northwest Territories has any potential for selling power to the South. He mentioned the other big markets down...
Mr. Speaker, that sounds kind of weak to me. Governments have to be able to chew gum and think at the same time and, in fact, in multiple ways, so I wouldn’t expect this sort of thing would allow a delay.
On the area of a related issue – child and family resource centres in Tulita and Ndilo – could the Minister please provide an update on the status of these centres that are long overdue? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to follow up from my earlier Member’s statement with questions to the lead Minister for the Anti-Poverty Strategy, Mr. Abernethy.
As I mentioned in my statement today, my constituents are telling me that our social safety net contains poverty traps. Some of the rules make it very difficult for people to access the help they need.
I’d like to start by asking the Minister, first of all, what is the current status of the Anti-Poverty Strategy Action Plan. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to also recognize Tony Whitford, if he’s still here. I don’t know if Mayor Mark Heyck is still here. I’d also like to recognize – again I can’t see them – Dick and Loretta Abernethy, both residents of Weledeh. Hi up there. Finally, Sophie Clark, a resident of Weledeh and one of our Pages today. Thanks very much for all the service the Pages are providing us. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister. I am sure we could all agree one wish is to have more money. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The last person I have on my list today is Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, we’re on general comments. Next I have Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I find a lot of my comments are the same as Ms. Bisaro’s. I don’t find the response from the Minister at all helpful. We are raising concerns here and he’s just stating what the budget is.
I think the message here is that we’re not happy with this budget. So going through very quickly here, this is a very unbalanced, disproportionate budget. It’s way over-weighted to highway, Department of Transportation highway projects, and primarily new highway projects.
I’d like to quote the Minister: “The GNWT is facing the difficult challenge of maintaining existing assets...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I don’t see a coordinator as being what I’m talking about here. Policy analysts are a very specific breed of cat and they have a specific focus and they get into the intricate examples of conflicting policies and weigh out the solutions. So I’m wondering: Has the work to date profiled issues such as these, other than a few examples provided by my colleagues and myself? What mechanism is being contemplated to ensure these policy conundrums are captured and brought forward for resolution so they don’t recur? I don’t think, again, a coordinator is...