Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate those remarks and that information. I think the next question is about biomass and I’m wondering what is the plan for significant replacement of fuel oil heating, particularly in our thermal communities for say with wood pellets or woodchips and I’m talking about for residences, for municipal buildings and so on. I’m not talking about any GNWT facilities. So what’s the plan, the energy planning that’s going on to get biomass replacement of fuel oil heating for residences and municipal buildings particularly in our thermal communities? Thank you.

I’m not sure how we could have done that if we don’t have authority for working with those resources. Perhaps the Minister could explain that to me and what he’s doing on the licensing side and training side for this industry.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m just wondering where the department is at with the Dettah road progress. I know there’s a lot of work that’s been happening to partner with a local firm and so on. I believe we had a budget of a couple of million dollars the first year and I’m wondering where we’re at on that. Are we spending that this year or can it be carried over? Is it carried over here if there is a carry-over?

Page 12-10, department summary, information item, Industry, Tourism and Investment, active position summary. Questions?

Thank you, committee. Page 12-27, information item, Industry, Tourism and Investment, tourism and parks, active positions, 12-27.

Sorry, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to follow up on some of the energy subjects that are of interest and concern, and I want to preface my remarks by saying I was very impressed with the opening remarks of the Minister and I appreciated many of the things that the department is planning. I think the Minister has been listening to committee.

I want to start with hydro and just ask where are we at with the projects that we have going now, and again I’ll preface that question with a statement that in Lutselk’e we’ve been doing feasibility studies, hundreds of thousands per year since 2001...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the NWT’s “let burn” fire management policy the NWT is a world-class source for valuable morel and other exotic mushrooms of the highest quality. Fresh morel mushrooms bought by southern suppliers last year for $40 in the NWT sold for upwards of $120 on international markets. Demand greatly exceeds supply, guaranteeing high price returns for limited investment. Last year aggressive harvesters from the South took up to half a million dollars in mushrooms, while local pickers made only about $15,000.

The GNWT does not yet have jurisdiction over the management of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t really hear anything meaningful here. I guess I would ask the Minister to put some rigour into this process. The sorts of things that the deputy minister mentions are all good and they’re all common sense; they all are responsible things everybody should be doing. It doesn’t move anywhere towards the environmental responsibility we should be taking on these days. Dealing with liabilities sounds great, but what that deals with is when we make mistakes we’re going to try and look after. No, no, we want progressive action here that moves forward in a progressive way...

Calling for general comments, hearing none, thank you, committee. We’ll start with detail and we will defer until after consideration of detail the operations expenditure summary on page 12-7 for ITI and turn to page 12-8. Department summary, information item, Industry, Tourism and Investment, infrastructure investment summary. Questions?