Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, thanks to the Minister. I’m already getting suggestions from my colleagues here and one suggestion is airports. I know some municipalities take advantage of that. I know the GNWT does here and there. That might be a place to also include. When it does come down to it, without putting holes in the wall or anything, where there happens to be vacant space I see nothing wrong with making space available to artists for the display of performances and so on. Perhaps the Minister could include that in his consideration.

I appreciate the Minister’s commitment there. To some degree I think, I don’t know, the Minister doesn’t know. I don’t know that anybody in the House knows. That’s a reflection of the situation. I think we owe it to our people, our artists, to be on top of that and get a policy in place. Would this Minister commit to, if we don’t have a policy that he can share with us, if he would commit to looking into this and getting a policy in place?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Conversion of our energy systems to renewables supports development of a home-grown industry, frees our people from unpredictable and rising fuel costs and cuts greenhouse gas emissions. It provides major economic and employment opportunities at the community level. To pursue those benefits, we need a detailed understanding of the supply of forest resources and their sustainable use.

The Biomass Strategy calls for work with communities to assess the potential use of biomass energy to encourage a stable and economic supply of NWT pellets in our communities, to build a...

I think that’s a wise place to start. Obviously, a year and a half is the announced schedule. We’ll see whether they stick with that.

First of all, these are not small pieces of equipment and they’re very unique and I assume would have implications. I wonder if the Minister would commit to starting to give some thought to that and maybe let us know. No rush, but I think some assurance the department is starting to consider those sorts of things so we’re not caught flat footed. That’s all I had on that.

I appreciate that information. Just as a follow-up to my other two on the Sustainable Communities Administrator Program and Renewable Energy Technician Program, if I can get an update on where we’re at on those two programs. Thank you.

That’s all I had on this page. Thank you.

I guess I would hope that we would be able to find out eventually. I would be interested in having that information reported back to committee, if that’s possible. Thanks for that information.

I know the Minister is aware that, over a number of years now, I and committee have been interested in Aurora College programs, as many people are, and particularly seeing programs developed in the area of Sustainable Communities Administrator Program and in the area of Renewable Energy Technician Program. I was wondering if I can get an update on those.

Just for efficiency of time, I also know that there...

Thanks for the Minister’s response. I guess I have a couple of points on that. The Minister referring to the marching orders of the Legislative Assembly and I don’t debate him on that. The only thing is I don’t think he would suggest that we park our brain outside the door. When the economic analysis for that highway was built entirely on the Mackenzie Gas Project, when that was temporarily shelved for five or 10 years as it has been, then I would think that this body of representatives would likely bring that into consideration and adjust our plans accordingly. It might buy us a window of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a few brief questions here. I note that the division provides immigration supports through the Canada-NWT Agreement on Territorial Nominees. I just wonder what activity we had on that file and how many Canada-NWT Agreement territorial nominees we have had in the past 12 years or whatever measure the department has handy. I guess associated with that, do we monitor what areas these immigrants work in, if they are associated with a particular field? If so, I would be interested in that breakdown, as well, if that is handy. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m just wondering if the vehicle licensing is in corporate services or is that in highways. That sounds like it might be in highways so I’ll save that one.

The other thing, in terms of planning, again, I’m wondering where the division is between the divisions and planning, but I’m wondering where… I’d like to talk a little bit about the maintenance of our highway systems versus decisions to put resources into new road infrastructure, if that would be, again, under planning and policy here or whether that would be in highways.