Bob Bromley

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...

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?