Bob Bromley

This week is Living Wage Week in Canada. Many people in the Northwest Territories don’t earn enough at their jobs to pull themselves and their families above the poverty line. The concept of a living wage is based on the understanding that a person working full time should be able to support themselves in their community.

This movement is gaining traction in many places throughout the world. It addresses income inequality, one of the biggest obstacles to economies everywhere. Paying employees a living wage can change that for millions of Canadians. In fact, employers in about 30 cities are set...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our second Energy Charrette in as many years begins today. Will we finally get it right? We’ve made no net gains in the intervening time. Another $58 million in diesel subsidies and millions in failed subsidies in connecting power grids, some clearly a waste because results were so predictable. Hardly progress. We must get real.

The Premier, ENR and NTPC may finally be starting to think in terms of keeping the lights on and begin to address energy costs in ways that also gain environmental social benefits, all part of the affordability equation.

Current diesel power...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to register my concern about this bill. I think, given our fiscal status, we are going out on a limb here. There is no need to advance $40 million on the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway Project in particular, given that there is no record of performance on that project on which to base such a decision and there is ample time to do that during the winter session, which starts a couple of months from now. I just want to make sure that was clear that we are making this decision to advance a considerable amount of money, given our fiscal status and all the unexpected...

I’d just like to recognize a couple of visitors in our gallery today, Mary Lou Cherwaty and Steve Peterson, both well-known representatives for employees and well-regarded activists for strong social and labour standards within the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is good to hear. Cabinet’s recent subsidy of $20 million to cover diesel generation due to climate change-induced drought brings a total over the past few years, as we’ve heard, to $58 million if we ignore the indirect subsidy effects or costs. This perpetuates our reliance on diesel, obviously, by taking resources that could have been used to develop renewable energy systems and pouring them into a seemingly bottomless tank of diesel.

Has the Premier, or if not will he, include the question about where we should subsidize to get the best return for our citizenry...

The Premier didn’t catch that. I said it was from this side of the House. The one-size-fits-all power system has been disastrous for our communities. In fact, community generation opportunities are diverse, from geothermal in Fort Liard and Yellowknife, to small scale hydro in Wekweeti, to solar in Colville. NTPC has considerable experience in some areas, but solutions may or may not overlap with their experience.

How has the Premier ensured that NTPC plays a supportive role rather than an influential role on the direction the charrette takes, given their record of short stopping community...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to acknowledge Mary Rose Sundberg and Rose Mackenzie. At a fall community feast at the Chief Drygeese Centre in Detah, in celebration of the Literacy Council’s Peter Gzowski Literacy Invitational, two Weledeh constituents and Yellowknives Dene members were recognized for their achievements.

Rose Mackenzie, who is a second-year Aurora College Ndilo Community Learning Centre student, was honoured with the Literacy Learner Award for her determined and successful efforts towards self-improvement as an adult learner. Particularly, Rose has excelled in mathematics...

Finally, we need to be prepared for solutions that move away from a single provider like NTPC or Imperial or whomever. We must address the issue of stranded infrastructure, efficient fossil fuel backup systems, locally derived forms of energy that provide local jobs, and the energy education and training to help us move into the 21st century.

As we hear from every quarter, scientists and our dwindling population, time is running out. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a comment. I don’t have any questions on this. I think we’ve come a long way and it’s been an interesting discussion. I think we’ve come to the right conclusions on this. Of course, we could change legislation at the federal and territorial level to extend our mandate up to a year, but I think we’ve listened to the public who expressed some concern about that.

This is an extension, but it’s a modest extension and, I think, theoretically at this time, depending on when the federal election is actually finally decided to be, I think this is a very reasonable...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.

The petition contains 123 signatures of Northwest Territories residents, and the petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut adopt the proposed Occupational Health and Safety Regulations as drafted in 2011 by the Safety Advisory Committee of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.