Bob McLeod

I guess there were a number of reasons. First and foremost is we were working under very tight timelines and if we didn’t file by February 11th we would have forgone the opportunity to appear before the different panel hearings. We didn’t want to be like the federal government where three federal departments that are intervening did not respond because they don’t support the pipeline. So as a responsible government, it was incumbent upon us.

We have to recognize that through NEB we are very limited in scope as to what we can respond on. We’re talking about the technical aspects with regard to...

Mr. Speaker, I have the letter right here. It is from the chair of the Standing Committee on Social Programs. There is no reference to the NEB in that letter. I assume that the Standing Committee on Social Programs is only interested in the Joint Review Panel recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

No, I have not had the opportunity to convey this information to anyone as of yet, but, certainly, I think it would be a good idea. I know these tents; people can live in the middle of winter under these tents, so it would certainly be helpful in Haiti. But this is something that we can get a hold of the responsible parties to try to make it happen.

I think that’s a great idea and we are always looking for a market for our products. I think that would be an excellent way to promote the tents and the products of the Northwest Territories. The main thing is it’s operating as a business, so we would have to find the money to pay for the tents. I think we would perhaps do that through a supp of some sort if we get the necessary support.

Mr. Speaker, I am just going by the letter that I received from the Standing Committee on Social Programs. As my colleague the Minister of ENR indicated, we are quite prepared to do a joint briefing with the different committees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess for a couple of reasons. One is we normally work with the Standing Committee of Economic Development. Secondly, we weren’t aware that the Standing Committee on Operations wanted input into the response to NEB. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through the regulatory process, there is a process of intervening with the report. As far as I understand, the Member is listed as an intervener with the Joint Review Panel process. As such, it is to make sure that we have a fair process. We have to make sure that if we provide the Member with information, it has to go to all of the interveners in the Joint Review Panel process. As such, the Member, being an intervener, found out about the fact that we filed the statement with the National Energy Board like all the other interveners did. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on Section 23(i). The Member is suggesting that we are withholding information from him. I would like to point out that he is an intervener in the Joint Review Panel process. As such, by providing information to him, he would have unfair advantage over other interveners in the process. For that reason, I rise on a point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Certainly we look at all the modern technologies. We are limited to a certain extent by the communications networks that we have in the Northwest Territories. But we do have satellite technologies. We do have equipment so we can have conference calls. We do have TV so we can see each other when we have meetings. As a department we’re working with the private sector so we can take advantage of any and all opportunities that come along.

We are close to completing our Tourism 2010 Plan and we will be taking all the information we hear or are hearing from Canada’s Northern House and we are working with NWT Tourism to develop a 2015 tourism plan. Using that approach we will endeavour to take all these opportunities into account. Also, as the Member recognized yesterday, we were getting a lot of interest from the international media to come up and find out more about the Northwest Territories so that they can promote it even further.