Bob Bromley

Mr. Chair, I guess that just elevates my concern here. I know the Premier is aware of how much consultation costs. I certainly am aware that we are not neophytes at devolution. I think that our public might be in that they have not been involved in the massive discussions and consultations that have been going on. That’s where my concern comes from, is that we’d be sure to bring them along with us on this historic development.

If we’re going to do an unprecedented level of involvement, I would expect an unprecedented level of cost, thus my concern. Would the Premier be expecting to supplement...

Thank you. I appreciate Mr. Kalgutkar’s comments there. I knew it wasn’t that simple. So we’re proposing $8.166 million for Deh Cho Bridge interest payments for this coming fiscal year. Will it stay at that amount and for how long? Or what’s the forecast for amounts there and longevity of that payment? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize visitors in the gallery representing an array of arts groups affiliated with the NWT Arts Council. Weledeh constituent Constantina Tsetso is here representing the Yellowknife Choral Society. With her are Gerda Hazenberg with the Kole Crook Fiddle Society, Shawna Lampi-Legaree with the Yellowknife Watercolor Society, and Brenda Crerar-Lowen, as we’ve heard, president of Music NWT. These groups and others are cooperating to create a unified voice to support and broaden awareness of not only the benefits of participating in the creation of arts, but...

Thank you. This is a phrase I’ve heard more often recently and I have constituents coming to me and asking what it means. There’s a lot of confusion about what northern tools refers to. So could we just take a moment? That would be very useful if I could get some idea about what we mean by northern tools. Thank you.

It’s never simple, Mr. Chair. Let’s see. Our rate went down but because absolute costs for electricity are up it ends up being a higher amount. Maybe I can get Mr. Kalgutkar to try that one more time and what we can expect to see in the future here.

Thank you. What else will that $22.5 million be expected to cover as well as the public consultation aspect? Thank you.

Okay. All of the debt that is not self-financing is the amounts that we pay in interest the cost of that debt indicated on this page, or could the Minister tell me what it is or which ones would fall under that category? Thank you.

I think we talk a lot about development issues and the regulatory process and so on. I know we’ve contemplated a land use framework, I believe it was called, for some amount of time. We apparently have found it equally challenging internally, but does the Premier see any interim solution to this big problem in terms of… What can we do? There is so much of our country that still does not have land use plans and they are so helpful when it comes to considering development proposals. Thank you.

I wonder, could I ask the Minister to provide that. I don’t want it to be an onerous, time-consuming exercise, but if that could be readily pulled out, that would be useful.

That’s all I had. I guess I’ll be looking forward to when an appropriate time has gone by and there is enough substantial experience with this program to getting an update through committee. I appreciate the Minister’s remarks.