Bob Bromley

Again, thank you to the Minister for those comments. Yes, obviously there are different levels of complexity to this whole issue. Fundamentally, though, it can be expressed by if people leave the Territory, and especially talented and contributing members of our society, that is a great cost, so that needs to be considered. So will, finally perhaps, the public consultation also include the presentation of alternative solutions, some options for the public to consider? Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, will it include what the character of those cohorts are? By that, I mean holistically what are their roles in the community and the community’s well-being? Will there be an assessment of that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize some constituents: Joyce Gilchrist, Dick and Loretta Abernethy, folks of my colleague here beside me. Also, Bill Erasmus, constituent of Weledeh and, of course, there’s other old timers that I recognize in the audience, many, but Bob and Loretta Gamble. Good to see them here and the chiefs from Tlicho. Thank you.

All kudos to the Minister. He has been highly successful, and I recognize that. But today our public demands much more than just throwing dollars at issues. They want to know they’re getting good value for dollars. Where is the green infrastructure? Where is the cutting down our future expenses? What is this Minister doing to take those dollars and turn them into double the value through these energy efficiency programs?

We had a small window of opportunity before our dollar value, oil value goes through the roof for our expenses. When are we going to take advantage of this window on the energy...

My question is for the Minister of Housing. As I mentioned in my statement, energy costs are down right now. We have an opportunity to move on this, and move in ways that keep energy costs down in the long run for us. One, of course, is the Housing Program, a cost-shared program. Housing has committed to doing an evaluation of a sample of houses to determine requirements to bring them up to meet the EnerGuide for Houses 80 standard. Given the recognition of a need for an economic stimulus and the availability of federal dollars not matching funds, will dollars be accelerated and the program be...

Yes, for clarification, obviously a new policy like this can have different affects on different cohorts depending on their ability to pay and depending on the role they play in our community. For example, let’s take the seniors. These are a cohort of people who have incredible expertise and experience, and often time and energy and willingness to contribute to the community. So when we have impacts on them, obviously it’s going to roll through the whole community and Territory. So I am looking for a commitment. Will the Minister commit to providing that sort of assessments for each of those...

I would like to follow up with the Minister of Health if I could briefly and ask, will the consultation include information on what the size of the different cohorts are in terms of the different thresholds? Thank you.

I wanted to start by saying I was very pleased to hear in the budget address whenever things were being considered they were being considered from the perspectives of the economy, people, and the environment. This is a three-legged stool that is so essential in our approach to all issues. This is the first budget I have actually heard this in, so I want to compliment the Minister on that.

I’d like to also delve into the details, because that’s where the juice is, or not, on energy initiatives. I’d like to start by mentioning this recession that we’re in and the effect it’s had on the price of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks for those comments from the Minister. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss these things, and I’d like to think that the Minister has made a commitment to discussing all the opportunities. Certainly, if we do deal with operation and maintenance costs in the short term, we’re going to have dollars for housing in the long term. We can no longer do business as usual. So can I assume that the Minister is committed to having discussions on ways to turn those dollars towards energy efficiency in ways that will give us many more returns than just building houses...

Again I repeat, the opportunity is there. There is also a Green Infrastructure Program that this program could be applying aggressively on. Is the Minister aggressively going after these dollars and looking at this program to recognize this opportunity and act on it to bring these houses up in a much more accelerated way through the economic stimulus packages that we have before us?