Bob McLeod

It’s a program decision. It’s not based on whether a position is filled or vacant. It’s what’s in the best interests of fulfilling this decentralization priority of this government.

I’ll be in contact with others in the fur industry that we interact with and we’ll take appropriate action. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the piece that the Member heard on the radio this morning shows that we have to be very vigilant in protecting our way of life. The fact that people in the Northwest Territories, and not only northern Canada but other places in Canada practice a way of life where they harvest animals and use it for food and clothing. So every opportunity we have to make sure people and the public are educated on these matters, we will do. I heard that the Environment Minister called for an apology, so we are prepared to do something similar. Thank you.

Thank you. My office always acts immediately on motions that are passed in this House. So I’ll just have to go back. I’m pretty sure that the letters have gone out and I’ll go back and dig those letters out and provide copies to the Member. Thank you.

Certainly, we are headed in that direction. We expect to be spending significant amounts of investment in alternative and renewable forms of energy. Just to show some of the things we are already doing in our government of the 17th Assembly, through alternative energy products, building retrofits, biomass projects, cumulative savings of over $3.3 million have been achieved in the last three fiscal years; the energy conservation projects have helped reduce the Government of the Northwest Territories’ reliance on fossil fuels, heating oil in particular. Since 2007, Public Works and Services...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not familiar with that theory or recent publications in Nature magazine that the Member is referring to, but I do know that greater than 80 percent of our oil and gas reserves are already underground and stranded here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

I think the Member is putting words in my mouth. At the Energy Charrette we were told we have very complex 65 megawatts and we will still need to burn fossil fuels in order to have redundancy. You reference our travel around the world and I think many of the Members here have travelled around the world as well. They should see the value in doing that. We see oil and gas development having a future in the Northwest Territories, but we will be investing millions of dollars in alternative and renewable forms of energy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I guess we’re not all Rockefellers here in the Northwest Territories, but we are taking action in that regard with the Energy Charrette. We are moving in that direction. We are waiting for the outcomes of the Energy Charrette and we are committed that we will take action when we have those results. Our government is taking a balanced approach to development and we expect that going forward we will be, as we stated in our second Energy Charrette, that those are the kinds of things we are looking at doing to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very pleased to recognize visitors in the gallery who are participating in the NWT Campaign School today and tomorrow, so at the end of this year I expect some of them will be sitting down here. Tina Gargan, president of the Status of Women Council; Lisa Dempster, Newfoundland Parliamentarian; participants Pertice Moffat, Darlene Sibbeston, Jan Fullerton, Debbie Dechief, Gail Cyr, Karen Willy, Sarah Pope, Diana Pellissey, Amanda Kanbari, Kathy Paul-Drover, Caroline Cochrane-Johnson, Laura Boileau; and Status of Women Council staff Lorraine Phaneuf, Samantha Thomas...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Glen Abernethy will be absent from the House today due to illness. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.