Bob Bromley

Obviously, the Minister is circuitous now in his thinking. Private enterprise would be providing fuel in our communities if that was the case. The reason we are in these 16 communities is because private enterprise is not there to do that.

Can the Minister say, with a straight face, that at 40 percent savings on your fuel bill, there would not be the demand if that form of fuel was there and you had a choice between the two?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize Mr. Richard Edjericon, a resident of Weledeh.

I don’t really accept that argument. The demand is not there because the pellets are not there. In every one of our communities, of course, we have government facilities and they would also benefit and easily be able to contribute to any additional costs of this program. Recognizing that the department would have to struggle with the up-front costs of replacing those boilers in government facilities and so on. When we’re talking about 30 percent, 40 percent and greater savings, 45 percent, 48 percent savings, the payback times on those have been demonstrated to be quite effective and we do...

Thanks for the remarks from the Minister, although I would say he’s clearly wrong. We are not managing emissions of anybody but ourselves, the GNWT, and yet we have the authority to do that. That’s exactly the point I am talking about.

The Minister did outline the many costs; for example, residents who experience the startling pace of land slides, erosion into streams affecting fish populations, contaminant loads, damages to homes, shorelines moving communities such as your own, Mr. Speaker, and so on. We need to know what we’re dealing with here to provide this context.

Will the Minister...

We have had briefings in the 16th Assembly. I’ll leave it up to committee to get back to the Minister on that offer.

But specifically, I think it would be useful to know, for example, knowing what buildings we anticipate being brought down over the next three fiscal years, we know what their deferred maintenance is and the contribution to the sum of deferred maintenance costs. So it would be useful to know that as specific examples. Also some general estimates on the rate of increase of deferred maintenance on an annual basis, and that could be general. I’m not really asking about specific...

I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement earlier today and follow up with the Minister responsible for climate change. I assume that would be the Minister of Environment.

According to a number of statements made by the Premier and the Finance Minister the last couple of days, we have a strong commitment in addressing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Using only a partial look at the Department of Transportation costs, they are obviously significant. Yet, commitments to reducing emissions are that we are going to allow a 66 percent increase. Greenhouse gas intensive development...

That’s all the questions I had. I just will note that that has been provided for past years and we have that information. When it’s available for this year, this proposed year, that would be appreciated. Thank you.

We may be able to build the Inuvik-Tuk highway and Mackenzie Valley Highway but can we maintain them? Just ask my colleague Mr. Menicoche about Highway No. 7.

So what would be an appropriate response, Mr. Speaker? We clearly need to recognize our situation and provide the leadership so needed on this pervasive issue. Let’s put in place the policies that lead aggressively to a low-carbon economy in ways that build new industries, provide new jobs, strengthen our local economies and generate the environmental benefits we all want so much.

Such action would attract the people we want to come north...

Thanks for the Minister’s remarks. It sounds reasonable to me. I would also urge the Minister to in fact consult with businesses, who I suspect would be wildly enthusiastic for the display of local art in government space, especially public space that might be frequented by the public. I would ask the Minister to make that commitment to also consult with businesses about the display of local art.

Thanks again for the Minister’s response there. I do have other questions but I see I’m running out of time, so rather than get onto my next set of questions, maybe I’ll see if somebody else wants to go next and you can put my name back on the list.