Bob Bromley

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d just like to follow up with sort of an alert I gave in my general comments on the green teams, part of the Brilliant North, the plan. There was a record of failure on that and getting those established in the past, and I know in the 16th Assembly there was agreement to try and focus more on that. Has the Minister been able to get on top of that situation yet and what are the plans during 2012-13 here to make sure that those are up and running more effectively in all departments rather than in one or two? I know the one or two that are up and running have tried to...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister and deputy minister for those comments. I’ll look forward to that.

On the inspection services side of things, again, I know this department has their own building standards and so on, but unfortunately our communities don’t have a building standards act. I know that there are many cases when they’re at a loss, they do approach Public Works and Services and when they are able, they do provide a response on an informal basis to help out there. I’m just wondering, is there an assessment of that sort of service that’s provided or is that...

My last question here is: Is this a unit of your department or is it a private enterprise contract? How does it work?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It does get hard to hear here. I think the Minister knows where I’m coming from here. I have to say that I’m not totally comfortable with his comment that it always has to be purely based on economics, these decisions, but I think so far we obviously have been doing very well, just based on economics. Although I see there are other government mandates and responsibilities here as well that need to be serviced. Could I get the Minister’s reaction on moving to a 40 percent better National Energy Building Code?

Thanks to the Minister for that clarification and additional information. We should obviously be doing some monitoring and evaluation. Can we expect that to happen and would the Minister have a time frame in mind or can he establish one working with committee here?

Yes, was that page 7-17, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, May 30, 2012, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that the Government of the Northwest Territories reinstate funding at least equivalent to the budgets devoted by the 16th Assembly for programming and support of renewable energy generation and more efficient use of energy;

And further, that comprehensive planning and implementation of new hydro generation and grid connections be reinstated towards the achievement of both reduced and stabilized power costs and expansion of...

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...