Bob Bromley

My comment on that is Canada ships about 90 percent of our pellets by overseas, so I don’t see an issue there. Obviously, the economics are there and so on and the pellet supply is available. In fact, there’s a glut right now in BC because of some of the other environmental impacts they are experiencing in the way of the pine beetle and so on. So I don’t see that as a big one to overcome if there’s a will to get it done.

I just wanted to ask the Minister does he agree that the department plays an important role in helping support some of these renewable energies becoming economic by being the...

Thank you very much to the Minister for that comment. I’m glad to hear we’re thinking that way. I just want to note that all jurisdictions, we have faith in our communities, as the Minister has repeatedly said and used as an excuse for not having a building standards act, but I do think all other jurisdictions do have communities. Would the Minister agree that it is consistent to play this role and have some standards in legislation and that’s still consistent with having faith in our communities, which I think we all do?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There’s a big overlap between my colleague from the Sahtu and myself. So I’ll try not to go into too much detail here until we get to detail.

I guess in general terms I appreciated the Minister’s opening remarks and I thought he gave a good update on the Capital Asset Retrofit Fund, and the benefits of work done on that, and the future outlook for that program and the environmental benefits in terms of reduction and greenhouse gas emissions. Again, I see a very responsible department towing the line fiscally and I appreciate the effort there. I know that it takes a lot of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We need to improve the quality, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of our NWT housing and building stocks through an NWT buildings act.

Right now, mandatory standards in all provinces and Yukon require new buildings to meet the EGH 80 energy efficiency standard and 25 percent better than the National Model Energy Building Code.

While the standards of the National Modern Energy Building Code are required, there are no assurances these standards are being met due to the lack of small community inspections and enforcement systems.

Project management capacity...

Maybe could I just get what the amount was in fines for ‘11-12? We had been fined under two categories. So if it’s possible to break that out, that would be great.

Would the Minister maybe commit to keeping us updated when we know what’s happening this fiscal year in terms of that and maybe even an update on how things are going at some point with trying to seal this issue once and for all and get all of the departments responding appropriately? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again I seek guidance. I’d like to speak to the failure of this department in the past to establish a Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission policy that resulted in fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars amounting and totaling to millions. Is that appropriate under the corporate human resources or would that be the next section on employee services?

So there is a government team or committee, in this case. Are there departmental committees, departmental teams as well? My understanding was that that was the intent and that was not happening. But maybe the Minister could, again, clarify that for me.

Thanks for those comments. I know there is a lot of experience with the department, so that would be useful if we do go that way.

I was also asking, I know that communities have projects and often turn to Public Works and Services personnel on an informal basis. Is there a way of capturing that sort of thing and reporting on it as to the degree of activity that happens in that format given the absence of an NWT building standards act? Mahsi.

Yes, thank you. Just the word “allied” caught my attention there. It’s normally used in the title of companies and so on. Perhaps it has another meaning here.

Thanks for that commitment. That’s what I was asking for. Obviously, as I mentioned, almost all other jurisdictions have already gone to the 25 percent and they’re more southerly than us. Our savings are bigger, obviously.

My second one is on the contracting and procurement services. Again, sort of an asset revolving issue, you might call it. I brought this up before. We do have a Green Procurement Policy in place but it’s worth beans. The department knows that and had committed in the past to coming up with a real Green Procurement Policy with best practices and standards and so on, getting...