Bob Bromley

Madam Chair, those all sound great. It is good to hear we are putting some intention to that sort of detail.

The other part, I know the Minister is a big supporter of the arts. I am sure he recognizes the opportunity here to support the arts community. Especially in light of the lack of an arts facility other than NACC community structure, what is the Minister putting in place for the display of art from Yellowknife and the NWT? Is there a policy in place to assure 1 percent of the wall space or something is available for display of arts products, activities? Thank you.

Maybe the last one for now, Mr. Chair. I’m just wondering, when I go to see the doctor, he seems able to pull up my records pretty easily and access some pretty good history there. What’s the difference that we’re talking about here between the current system, I suppose, whatever it might be called, and the EMR being proposed here? Thank you.

Madam Chair, thanks again to the Minister. The other part of that question was: What date has been given to the city for the deadline for the GNWT to know and make their decision?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to keep it brief here. I’d like to just ask a question or two on emergency medical records, follow-up. I know that estimates of the costs have doubled over the past year for a number of reasons and we’ve been given some information on that. I’m wondering to what degree will the current proposal complete the implementation of emergency medical records, given it will take until ‘14 or ’15, and what is the likelihood of a change in project scope and schedule and costs. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to ask, first of all, with respect to the 6,000 square metre general purpose office building, what the heating options are for the building. I know there is interest in the community energy system for which there still is some uncertainty. I understand there are options for sharing heat with other government buildings. Can I just get a summary on where we are at with those options? Thank you.

I would just say that this government has a strong focus on internal operations and we’re doing a good job there, but when we see a real opportunity for engaging the public and assisting them in taking on our goals and enjoying the benefits of it, we seem to fail. We have a record of failure there. As long as we continue to think that way, that’s the way it will be. This government will enjoy the costs or benefits that we’re getting but we won’t achieve the broad government goals because we’re a small part of northern society.

I understand the Minister’s comments and I say it’s not so much how...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t hear a response to my question for a commitment to estimate the costs to government and the public. I’d still like that commitment. We clearly need to recognize our situation.

I’d like to know, in recognizing that the federal government has abandoned Kyoto and so on, can the Minister tell us what efforts he is making in partnership with other provincial, territorial and Aboriginal governments to push forward combined subnational efforts and I’d also like that commitment. Mahsi.

For several years we pushed for Public Works and Services to examine this division with the potential or the possibility of incorporating a wood pellet purchase, transport and storage distribution system. I was very pleased to see the department actually conduct research on that question and produce a fairly positive report on it. In the report they detailed that wood pellet heat in almost all of the roaded communities was in the order of 50 to 60 percent of fuel oil cost, so a huge savings to be had. Although there were other roaded communities, winter-roaded communities, where the most...

Thanks to the Minister for those remarks. The Minister certainly is dead on there. We are doing lots of things. I think we are one of the most progressive jurisdictions.

Of course, we also have some of the greatest costs. I appreciate the Department of Transportation’s frankness in responding to some of my questions about what those costs are, recognizing that those are only partial costs if they are conservative, admittedly conservative costs, that they ignore the costs to the public and so on and that those costs are accelerating year to year.

I want to talk a little bit about the context...

Very briefly just to follow up to, again, that interesting series of questions and discussion. If I could ask the Minister to commit to providing committee with the anticipated savings over the next three years in deferred maintenance and that result from buildings planned to be torn down. Also, an estimate of the rate of increase of deferred maintenance on an annual basis so that we can actually try and grapple with the question that Mr. Dolynny raised. That would be useful. Thank you.