Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. According to Tabled Document 127-17(5) – and my questions today are for the Minister of Lands – Canadian Zinc’s Prairie Creek Mine has a shortfall of $6 million in the amount of financial securities provided, evenly split between the environmental land use permits and water licence. The same tabled document indicates GNWT has failed to collect the startling $170 million-plus in securities related to the water licence related to Dominion Diamonds’ Ekati mine.

Can the Minister explain these shortfalls and indicate when the required security will be forthcoming? Mahsi.

Mr. Chair, the term I actually used was lifecycle renewals, a term I pulled out of the document, but essentially that is it. I’m just wondering: under our maintenance work that we are doing, the sort of catch-up to try and reduce our deferred maintenance, do we subscribe to those standards? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just had a couple of things. The first one is I am wondering where we are at with energy standards. I always bring that up. It is nice to get a progress report. I know that there has been some consideration at the national level to instigate new standards. I’m not exactly sure where we’re at with that. Maybe I will just start with that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the Minister’s offer might be of interest to the Members, too, but just on those older units, I’m assuming they are beyond use, would we be expecting replacement units to be on the capital plan in the near future? Thank you.

That would be a feat, and I’ll ask the Minister to keep us updated on that.

I guess my last question is: Will there be any new costs for GNWT as a result of the final assessment?

I might add, Mr. Speaker, the most expensive power in the world is what this Power Corporation is producing, and this Minister is letting this go, passing up what other opportunities we have missed like this.

The Minister will be happy to learn that despite government failure and the best efforts of NTPC to stand and watch this exciting opportunity evaporate, Borealis GeoPower is still prepared to move forward with this project without the federal subsidy.

My question is: Is this government now prepared to move forward and capitalize on this still available and valuable opportunity? Mahsi.

It sounds good. No evidence. Will we be talking about this before the 18th Assembly, or are we leaving the budget to the 18th Assembly?

A power purchase agreement from the Power Corporation was a condition for the federal funding available. Despite a three-year window in which to provide the necessary power purchase agreement was not forthcoming from NTPC. The government has said that it provided the terms for an agreement, knowing full well that this falls short of the requirement for the PPA. This failure cost residents, businesses and government millions of dollars in the loss of local jobs. Borealis was willing to shoulder all financial risks.

Why did the government not direct this fully owned subsidiary to provide a power...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick follow-up to that. I see we have spent quite a bit on this last year and we’re planning to spend more. Whereabouts are we? Are we on budget with this or is the budget increasing on this project?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to acknowledge and congratulate Weledeh constituent Zhalaani Drygeese-Yelle on her recognition as Top Young Trapper in the North Slave region under the Genuine Mackenzie Fur program.

---Applause

It’s excellent to see her here in the gallery. Apologies for not recognizing Zhalaani. Perhaps her family is here too.

Zhalaani, a resident of Detah and in Grade 12, will graduate this year, but she is also learning about the traditional skills of her culture from her parents. Zhalaani’s parents believe in teaching their children both traditional and modern skills. A...