Bob McLeod

I think the Member should look around. We’ve done Bluefish, we’ve done biomass, we’ve done LNG, we’ve done solar and there’s a whole host of other alternative and renewable energies that are on the books. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government, in both the 16th and 17th Legislative Assemblies we have reduced our reliance on fossil fuels. We’ve been spending money on alternative and renewable forms of energy. For the 17th Assembly, we have an Energy Plan where we’re spending approximately $10 million a year over three years to move into the areas of biomass, LNG and other forms of renewable alternative energies.

As far as spending money on projects that are large and costly, when we have our helmets on and our boots to the ground, we determined that they’re no longer feasible. We are not in the...

Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to creating prosperity for all our citizens, and we recognize that residents of rural and remote communities have unique needs. We recognize that it can be difficult to communicate with government departments when people do not know who to contact or if they are not able to access online services.

I am pleased to announce that with the support of this Legislative Assembly, three new single-window service centres will soon open in Fort McPherson, Deline and Behchoko. These centres will help connect residents with the information and services they need...

It’s not a quid pro quo. We will identify some of the houses to go to remote communities, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we will put a decentralized position in there immediately.

As we go through the business planning process, which we’ll be meeting with committees early this fall, at that time we expect that we’ll be able to outline the positions that will be decentralized.

We always have a plan, so you can be sure of that.

As we’ve announced in the budget, we will be spending $21 million over three years to build 100 houses in communities throughout the Northwest Territories. We are also spending $783,000 for an additional 69 market rental housing units, and we’ve also approved in the Infrastructure Acquisition Plan for 2014-15 $300,000 for office space acquisition.

Our Department of Human Resources has implemented a Regional Recruitment Strategy to address the high vacancy rates outside of headquarters. With the 2015-16 Business Plan, we’ll be identifying which...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to welcome all the visitors in the gallery and Gordon Graydon, who walks with me occasionally in the fieldhouse. I also want to recognize a Page from Yellowknife South, Chris Sangris, and also thank all the Pages for all the good work they do here. Thank you.

As it is our normal practice to brief the standing committee on all of these plans, we will continue to do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we’ve pointed out, we’ve taken a three-phased approach to decentralization. We’ve now completed phase one and phase two and started phase three. I’m pleased to say that to date we’ve decentralized 124 positions from Yellowknife to centres outside of the capital, and we are actively discussing other opportunities for further decentralization under phase three. Through the leadership of the Minister of Finance and the Department of Finance, our expectation is that we will be able to identify to the standing committees as we undergo the 2015-16 business planning process...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to recognize two visitors from Scotland, Pat and Jim Thom, and also I’d be remiss if I didn’t recognize that Pat grew up in Yellowknife at Giant Mine townsite and some of you long-time Yellowknifers may remember her as Pat Spence. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, further to my Return to Written Question 16-17(5) I wish to table the following document, entitled “Other Direct Appointments Prior to March 12, 2014.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.