Floyd Roland

The work that’s being done with the consultations that need to go out, with the work with Members of this Assembly, all the avenues I think we’ve had discussions about will be looked at in one degree or another, but the final product needs to go through our system of working with committee members and getting feedback from the residents of the Northwest Territories.

In fact, the Power Corporation with the new chair and the new president/CEO are beginning to look at the ways the Power Corporation can be more involved across our Territory with the customer base, whether it’s residential or industry side, to look at a balance and to see how we can be more proactive in looking to the solutions that we may be able to find here in the Territory and provide that it meets a number of targets that we would set towards a Greenhouse Gas Strategy, towards reducing the cost of living in the North and being sustainable.

One of the interesting areas we began to look at prior to division and leading up to division of the Northwest Territories and the creation of Nunavut was we started the geographic tracking of our costs in our Territory at the territorial, regional and community level. This government picked that up and is using that to look at where we benefit our communities as well. We try to use as many tools as we can in measuring our impact in communities both large and small and will continue to look at that type of information as we look at designing our programs and how they benefit our communities.

Yes, we do have quite a number of programs, as I touched base earlier on, in trying to stimulate the economy. Just the announcement earlier today by the Minister of Transportation on the Community Access Program, expanding that because we see the good work it does in many of our communities. We do look at the socio-economic factors. That is why, for example, under Executive we’ve extended services into our small and remote communities under the CSO, or community service officer, positions to try to get as much information about programs to people across the Territory. When you look at our...

Again, because, as the Member stated, we’re non-partisan in this Assembly, we have the same questions go to the candidates and we follow it up with the leaders of the parties with our positions. Much of the work on implementation to see the proof in the pudding, I think what the Member is looking for, is something we make it our job as a government to follow through on. Our request for infrastructure commitment requests, for some political leadership on some files like climate change, like infrastructure, like the Mackenzie Valley Highway, like the pipeline. Those things, again, we follow...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Indeed we have made it a practice as the Government of the Northwest Territories when a federal election is on, to put our positions forward on where our key concerns lie. We’ve done that, for example, around climate change and our infrastructure in the North. We start by using the goals and vision of the Assembly and follow up through clarifying it as we have usually, through a Caucus process. I’d be prepared to go to Members with what our positions are existing, as we have them, and follow up with e-mails so that if an election were to be called we’d have some...

Thank you. I’ll have to get back to the Member on that, because the Power Corp has its capital replacement process as part of its rate structures as to when it can replace equipment. I do know that overall, from our side looking at the old Energy Coordinating Committee process, that Jean Marie River was looked at as a possibility of looking at biomass operations and I’ll have to get the latest on that. I don’t believe replacement is for this coming year, but they are looking at when that actual replacement comes up to look at what we can do. But I’ll get the latest from the NWTPC and then get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Devolution is another step in an ongoing process that has seen the Government of the Northwest Territories take more and more responsibility over the decisions that affect all of us. Decisions about our land and resources should be made by people who live here, by a government that is accountable to NWT residents.

The devolution agreement-in-principle, or AIP, allows negotiations to continue towards a final agreement which will benefit all residents of the NWT. If the deal were in place today, approximately $60 million from resource revenues this past year would be...

The Member does have a flair for making statements in this Assembly. Clearly, as the Member is a veteran of elections and election processes, he knows that any election process is a very difficult one, whether it is at a constituency level for the Legislative Assembly or the bigger picture of the Northwest Territories. Of course, we have an interest, as representatives of the people of the North, to try to get the best voice out there and a commitment to what we’re trying to do as the Legislative Assembly. We have, I believe, established a past practice of communicating with potential...

We’ll follow up. Again, we don’t know if an election is going to be called, when an election is going to be called and all that timing, but we have made it a practice as the Government of the Northwest Territories to get our issues out there so that they can be discussed, part of commitments made, hopefully, by potential candidates in a federal election, and we follow it up with Members in writing, I believe, to that rule. We’ll continue to use the same practice. Thank you.