Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s been a good discussion. I’m not sure; I guess I would like to reply to Minister Miltenberger’s comments there. I don’t want to repeat everything. I think the obvious gains, the win-win-wins are clear here. This is not news to the Minister, so I know he is not surprised. We will be looking forward to how we can get this in the budget.

The Minister claims that people here are speaking against the subsidy. Clearly, that is not the case. There is a history here. The 16th Assembly, against the wishes of many of us, made some really bad decisions and left us with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to mark the sudden passing of Dr. Clyde Hertzman. Clyde Hertzman became well known to NWT health professionals and educators through his role as an advisor to this government in the development of the first Early Childhood Framework. He has since been a continuing resource and inspiration to our territorial early childhood community. Dr. Hertzman was with us only last month at the Early Childhood Development Round Table in Yellowknife. I know many Members were there and Ministers, where, with his usual high energy and discerning understanding of his...

I move that this committee strongly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories identify additional funding to implement a program to replace electric hot water heaters with fuel-fired hot water heaters in communities that depend on thermal generation of electricity. Thank you.

Much appreciated and I’m sure my passion is a reflection of what I’m hearing.

I’d like to move now to a question that’s come up before and the Minister is aware of this. In terms of the Solar Strategy, NTPC has a standby charge that completely destroys the economic feasibility of solar, unless you own the facility, solar installations that are 10 kilowatts or greater. I know the Minister is aware of this, but are we going to fix that this year? Is that considered to be part of the work plan for this budget? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did want to cover a couple more areas here. First of all in the area of electronics implementation, electronics recycling implementation planned for this year, it sounds like we have an agreement with Alberta. How is this going to work and what parts of the territory would that cover? Would we start with sort of the large regional centres? Where are we at with this? Was there a fee to recycle, a plan for recycling electronics, or is this an economic proposition that we’ll actually make dollars from this? Thank you.

Thanks for the comments from the Minister. It sounds like he is acting on this. I’m glad to hear that. I hope it works. When there’s a wishy-washy line of authority, you often get a wishy-washy result. It sounds like there’s some firming up happening if it’s actually explicitly stated in revue standards for deputy ministers and so on. I appreciate that. It sounds like a reasonable compromise to try out.

I’d ask that the Minister keep us apprised on that and maybe the Premier to report if that has to be implemented, if there is – I forget the Minister’s term for pay and benefits – action that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A few quick comments here. I want to start off by adding my voice to the congratulations to the Minister and all his staff for the Canada’s Top 100 Employers Award. That’s really great.

So, briefly, I have similar concerns to what the Minister has heard on whistleblower, and I’m looking forward to that legislation being brought forward. Succession planning, I’m very interested in that. I’m finding myself sort of in that category here. What’s been done to date we’ve been talking about since the 16th Assembly. How do we change the statistics would be good to know.

We’ve...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Glad to hear it. On the second part there, I was asking about the planned funding cuts rather than the people that were the decision of the board that they were finessed into. We partner governments and boards rely heavily on the Environmental Review Board for essential information and advice, and the federal government is kicking the legs out from under it. The Commissioner of the Environment said the same thing even before these cuts.

My question is, as I asked in my statement: How long will devolution negotiations muzzle our voice and our willingness to stick up for...

Of course, the reason I’m asking these questions – I appreciate the Premier’s response there – is that the public is not hearing about this. It’s the people, our people who are being affected by these decisions which are only affecting the Northwest Territories. We’re talking about boards within the Northwest Territories. I think we very much have a role here. We have the prospect of seven new mines, the fibre optic link, the Mackenzie Valley Highway extension, and possibly hydro development in the offing.

The government has complained past reviews were too slow. We haven’t hesitated to speak...

These measures threaten our ability to protect our northern environment. They gut the board that this government will rely upon for our management advice following full devolution. All this without a public word of protest or concern from territorial leaders.

How long will devolution negotiations muzzle this government, and what on earth is it going to take before the government finally speaks up on behalf of the citizens and their land? I will have questions for the Premier.