Bob McLeod

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.

We are very pleased with the initiative and leadership shown by Dene Nahjo, and our officials have been in contact with the principals. We have been asked and been given permission to incorporate parts or sections of their report into the draft Northwest Territories paper. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There were two letters written to Ms. Simon during her engagement process, and I would be pleased to table them at the appropriate time.

I think the fact is that the federal government is well aware of the potential for satellites in the Northwest Territories. Certainly, Natural Resources Canada was aware of it. They invested a significant amount in developing the federal site. The other federal Ministers, including the Prime Minister's Office, is well aware of it now, and certainly we will continue to work with the federal government to find ways to resolve the issues so we can continue to grow the industry in the Northwest Territories. We can work with them to identify to them where we see the bottleneck so that certainly...

This is an area where the advances are very rapid, so it's a concern when it takes two years for a licence to be approved. However, the federal government recognizes that the legislation is old and processes that are currently in place need to be updated, given the significant advances. Part of the delay was they have a federal government site that was developed and there was also a site that was developed by the private sector. This was the first international application that was received. They had to make sure about national security issues, and also perhaps the fact that the construction...

That is the position we have always taken, and certainly my expectation is that the Arctic chapter or the Arctic Policy Framework will reflect that, recognizing that this will be a federal document.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The MLA for Frame Lake is on record as stating he wants no mines, no oil and gas, and in his Minister's statement, I am not surprised at the line of his questioning.

I met with the Ministerial Special Representative on Arctic Leadership in February of 2016. I spoke to her about our shared interests in closing the gap to create meaningful outcomes for people living in the Arctic, working to better the lives of residents, and building productive and collaborative relationships. We discussed lowering the costs of living by building infrastructure, education, training and...

Our expectation is that we'll get more details when our officials talk to the Global Affairs Canada later this week, which will allow us to try to make things better going forward.

Also, we're hoping that Planet Lab with this pending approval will see fit to revisit their decision to pull out and take their antennas out.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to reinforce the tremendous opportunity that this satellite facility has, not only for Inuvik, but for the whole Northwest Territories. Inuvik is the best location for tracking satellites, and when we went on a satellite tour in Europe, we become readily aware why because, when we visited the launching facilities in Korona, we were told that to have success in launching a satellite, the longer you can talk to it, the more chance of success. In Korona, they can talk to satellite for nine minutes an hour, but if they twin to Inuvik, they can talk for 30...