Bob McLeod

I guess I’m a bit surprised at the Member’s line of questioning since he was involved with developing legislation for BDIC and also the standing committee was consulted extensively in setting up the SEED program, which I think is working very well.

Mr. Speaker, trapping has long been a way of life for the people of the Northwest Territories. It’s a fundamental part of our culture. It is part of who we are.

Trapping is also an important economic activity, especially in many of our smaller communities. Trapping is not easy work, but it is rewarding work and it allows our people to get out on the land -- just as their ancestors have done for centuries -- and make a few dollars while they are at it.

Mr. Speaker, results from a recent fur auction show just how important that activity is to the Northwest Territories. At the Fur Harvesters...

The terms of reference have been out there since last year sometime. Certainly our expectation is we will come up with rates that would cover all those pillars.

We’ve been involved in a number of meetings with Avalon. We have sent a representative to a conference in Washington on the benefits of rare earth minerals. We are looking at their energy requirements. We will be co-hosting a conference with CanNor to discuss the value-added opportunities.

So rare earth minerals are something that’s fairly new. We don’t know a lot about all the different value added, but we will be working with the federal government to identify value-added opportunities and, of course, we’ll be working with Avalon as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I agree with most of what the Member said, but I would like to point out that the comparisons with the diamond mines, the reason we focus on value added is the fact that that’s the only way we can get benefits from development. The royalties go to the federal government, so if we want any benefits, we focus on the value added. With the diamond mines, through the environmental assessment process, we got the regulators to agree with what we were doing to provide for value added. I expect we would do the same thing with the Avalon project once it goes for...

The legislation that was passed in the 15th Assembly with regard to the NWT Hydro Act specifically excluded the transmission lines to the diamond mines. The reason for doing that was because the power purchase agreements negotiated with the diamond mines would be negotiated and, obviously, the hydro proponents would be seeking the best rate in terms of making profits. With regard to the regulated side, the whole focus is to keep the rates as low as possible. As such, the legislation provides for preferential rates to be negotiated on the regulated side. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our government has had some sessions with Avalon to discuss their project. Certainly, valued added is a priority for our government and also we want to work with them to facilitate that. So our first order of business is to determine what their requirements are.

As you know, the federal government is responsible for mining in the Northwest Territories and as such they collect royalties for all developments. So it makes it a little difficult for us to actually provide financial support. But, nevertheless, we are working very hard to identify areas that we can have value...

I’m quite prepared to commit to that because we do that as a matter of course. Certainly this is an area where we want to see development proceed and certainly we’ll work very hard to make this happen.

The NWT Power Corporation owns and generates the power. What I was talking about was, based on the current schedules, it’s basically who comes first.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the will of the House I’m sure that anything’s possible. I just wanted to point out that on the regulated side, the cost of operating the power facilities has to be recovered. I believe that what Avalon is looking for are rates that are similar to what are being provided in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In the Northwest Territories the commercial rate is 7.4 cents per kilowatt hour plus a one cent rider. That’s delivery. So that number is higher than what Saskatchewan Power charges Nico, for example. But certainly if we were to make an exception for Avalon, then we...