Bob Bromley

Again, thank you for those remarks, and I appreciate hearing those things are happening. Again, we need a really comprehensive response. What authority does the Minister have? As Ms. Bisaro pointed out, this response is required from every department and agency in the Northwest Territories, and in fact, we need the help of industry and residents as well. What authority does this Minister have, over at least those other government departments, to get some mandatory action on this issue, for a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement this afternoon and ask the Minister of ENR, who I believe is responsible for a response to climate change, what exactly he is doing to address climate change given that we are recognizing increasingly that there is a strong element of time and the need for immediate and comprehensive response.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This shortage of oil was forecast, but it’s happening now.

Mr. Speaker, both of these issues are upon us. The 16th Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories will decide our future. The opportunity, the responsibility, the requirement for immediate, comprehensive and effective action is ours. In light of the facts and today’s communications, we cannot deny that we are fully aware of these issues. History will record our response to these critical challenges. The time for action is now. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk to you, our Premier, MLAs and all people of the Northwest Territories. I am gravely concerned that this budget does not address some crucial issues.

As the Premier said on CBC this morning, we have to start taking actions to secure the future. Unfortunately, this government does not appear to have a good grasp of the key issues we face today. In a nutshell, government planning and budgeting must recognize and respond to the full implications of climate change and the rising costs and uncertain availability of oil. Almost daily, between reports of catastrophic...

Mr. Speaker, there are some things I like in this budget, and a number of them were emphasized in the highlights of the budget by the Minister of Finance last week: $3.1 million for nurses in small communities, $500,000 extra for the arts and culture programs. I like the land-use planning focus and policy development on water and some of the renewable energy initiatives. However, many of these — and all of the highlights, essentially — add up to about 6 per cent of the budget and really don’t reflect the degree of change that I think we need.

I have concerns regarding the lack of a cohesive and...

The Building Canada Fund may be a one-time fund, but we know it’s a one-time fund for seven years. We have a pretty clear record of establishing surpluses greater than $19 million over what was estimated every year for the past number of years. This year we’ve surpassed that yet again. So I don’t think these can be categorized as one-time situations. Looking at our estimated revenues last year, it was about $60 million or $70 million less than turned out to be the case. We’re at the same estimate for the Mains this year.

I’d like the Minister to commit to requiring every department to come up with its own plan — and this is on both the climate change and the cost of fuel end of things. As a responsible government, we really need to respond to the cost of fuel as well as the climate change issue, which are closely related. So will this Minister commit to get each department to aggressively develop, in the very short term here, plans to deal with those issues that are concrete — again, that result in net reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of a significant level?

Thank you for those remarks. I acknowledge that we have a number of programs that are getting off the ground, and I’m encouraged that we are going to be learning from that and that we’re starting to pay attention to the public here and the evidence that is strongly before us. Our Greenhouse Gas Strategy, if you would call it that, which commits itself to a 10 per cent reduction from 2001 levels by a certain date, is hardly significant when we are well on our way to or past doubling and are now on our way to tripling our greenhouse gas emissions. What we need is an absolute decrease in that...

I’d like to recognize Ms. Amanda Mallon, outgoing president of the NWT Teachers’ Association, and Mr. Jean-Francois Des Lauriers of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Mr. Speaker, the three most important things in the basic cost of living for all our residents are food, energy and housing. This Assembly has made it a priority to address the soaring cost of living. Because our small communities have little economic development, they must be subsidized at increasing costs, with significant implications to our residents and to the GNWT budget. In the budget presented, I see little comprehensive and effective government action to actually address these costs. I want here to suggest a basis on which to move forward on this key issue.

When basic needs are derived...