Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, as we’re aware, there’s been a lot of work done by the department and Department of Community Affairs in building that program and giving more authority and increasing budgets to communities. We haven’t made a decision as to the full impact of decisions we’ll accept as areas of reduction or areas of reinvestment. So at this time it’s difficult to say what impact would be felt in any department at this point. Departments have started their work, started evaluating, have been submitting that back. That review is ongoing at this point.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct that we do have to look at that rate structure. We do have an energy committee amongst cabinet. They’re looking at the whole area of energy and how it’s produced and delivered, and that can be one of the areas they look into. Ultimately, it will come to this Assembly for a decision if we’re to make any changes, so it would have to be this Assembly that would make a decision for any actual changes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the area of the access road 177 in Tuktoyaktuk is something that has been discussed by a number of Assemblies. As we’ve heard -- Members are probably starting to get tired of hearing this -- as we set out our direction, as we look at our business planning process, we’ll have to look at how we incorporate a number of these initiatives. This project would fall into that category of having to have a look at it and how it would fit within the overall plan of the 16th Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is those kinds of partnerships that will help in the delivery of key infrastructure in our communities. The more that that type of partnership can come forward and can help us and we help each other by bringing our resources together, that is something that we definitely have to look at. So we would be open to those types of discussions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ll use my prerogative in this matter and ask the Minister of ENR, who’s made his statement on wind energy a day or so ago.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we have entered this cycle, we are preparing to come forward once we have our discussion about the overall priorities of the 16th Assembly, look at the interim appropriation, for example, to carry on before we come forward with our full budget which would be in early spring, May or June. At that point, the requests for additional money, change of programs, we would be willing to work with Members, again looking at the overall priorities of the 16th Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is, within Executive, the whole sending out through the Messenger falls through the Department of Executive. My understanding is when that came across -- and I am just going from the note that was forwarded to me -- the question was asked for more thoughts on this matter. So that discussion I’m not aware has taken place yet. The government, overall, should have a discussion about what appropriate message should be sent. I recall in the past being requested to put some things from other groups on that Messenger service and they’ve been disallowed on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the 16th Legislative Assembly, we’ve already started, I think, a cooperative arrangement. We’ve gone forward, a meeting already has been held on this issue. A decision has not been made by Cabinet. I am prepared to sit down with Members again. As I already laid out, the interim appropriation, the business planning, no decisions have been made in that area. We have to set the priorities, but we are going to have to work within a fiscal environment that is going to squeeze us in a number of areas. Infrastructure is going to be one of those large...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know the Member would probably be happy to say it was I that said not to release it, but I have just been made aware of it by a note being sent over to me. So I am unaware who made that decision. It is something that we would have to look at. Thank you.

Cabinet has not made a decision on a priority list that we’re prepared to present to the federal government. We’ve had discussions within departments and, as I’ve laid out, we’ve worked from the information we have available and that’s public to date. Thank you.