Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're certainly prepared to do that. We will find out which communities have radio stations, and I'm sure we can get our GSOs to go on the air and talk about some of the services that they can provide, and educate, and communicate the programs and services that are available to people. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't want to muddy the waters, but as we have said before for those regions or Aboriginal governments that have land claims that have negotiated arrangements where these types of cabins are not fully taxed or they are not taxed, we have been talking at least to the NWT Metis Nation where we are expecting we are very close to having an agreement. We have asked them to quantify the issue and we are going to look at what arrangements can be done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is we thought we were responding positively to requests from the standing committees, specifically the Standing Committee on Government Operations. It is my expectation, and I certainly believe that this responsibility is more properly housed within the Department of Infrastructure. I expect the appropriate direction will emanate from that department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is MACA has responsibilities for volunteerism and other voluntary services, and also dealing with the communities. So they're in a much better situation to deal with the funding requests and the services that are provided through that fund. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly, as soon as this budget is approved, we'll have a more definitive plan recognizing that some communities are harder to fill, to staff GSOs than others; but certainly we will have a plan that will lay out where we would see GSOs being housed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Well, we as a government have met on bilateral basis with the NWT Metis Nation, where they requested an opportunity to clarify their positions on several long-standing items, and I certainly believe that we had a very good discussion. We went a long way to having a better understanding of each other's positions, and I think it certainly advanced the discussions.

We were invited to the public meeting that the NWT Metis Nation leadership had here in Yellowknife, along the North Slave Metis Alliance, and at some point, early in the meeting, they asked the government people to leave, and they were...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I should point out that this department only provides administrative services to the Public Utilities Board Minister. However, having said that, there has been no further direction to PUB on net metering. We expect that any direction will emanate with the release of the upcoming new energy strategy for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. It was part of a response, and through you, Mr. Chair, I will ask Mr. Courtoreille to talk about our response in that area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that the Finance Minister will be dealing with that, and we will be responding at the appropriate time to committee on where we are at with additional GSOs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is not a business where I can guarantee or give any assurances. All I can say is we are giving it an all-out effort to significantly advance the outstanding land claims. I believe that with these additional resources and renewed effort and new approach, that we will make significant progress. Thank you, Mr. Chair.