Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will deliver the Budget

Address on Thursday, February 10, 2005. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is what we are going to do now, go back and review our situation, how things have unfolded to this date and look at what we need to do to strengthen our position. It is timely that we do a review of these agreements, but we have to do this in a comprehensive way to make sure the avenue we choose, the road we go down is something that will be supported by this Assembly. We do have to look at what’s left for the future. We know the non-renewable resource industry, at some time an operation will close down because it has used all the material there. So as a government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the first thing is for us is to see if there is a possibility of getting another deal through our receiver to take care of the Sirius operation, that facility, and see if we can keep it as a going concern. Secondly, as I stated publicly, as a government, we are going to have to review what options we have to try to strengthen our position with the dealings we have with the mining companies. In some cases, we may have better agreements in place. But for this specific one, unfortunately, from the FMBS side, our involvement through the receiver trying to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member referenced 2000-01; so looking at the year we are in now, I think we have done significantly better in attracting people to those positions. Where required, and if it is of urgent nature that we have to deal with. We will look outside of our systems, but, again, we have to remind ourselves that we are in a fiscal situation. We have to be careful with how we spend our money, and we are doing the best with what we have available to us. From time to time, if required, we will look at hiring outside of the government service. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this year we have approximately four positions vacant in the Audit Bureau. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the work that we do on an annual basis in preparing for budgets and so on, we do look at the rates as they are and the impact that they would have, more for a budgeting process. I don’t have information offhand as to when the actual work was done on looking at the 700 kilowatt hours per month or the 1,000 kilowatt for small business. We haven’t done that work since we took office. It is something that we have to keep in mind; if we change those we also change the cost drivers in that. If it is something the Members of the House would like us to do a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated in response to the Member’s questions, overall, each government department has a different role to play. One is to look at their own assets and see if they are making proper use of them. As well, we do have a number of programs that are out there to help support individuals with the impact of the high cost of power, as well as the Seniors' Fuel Subsidy Program. So, Mr. Speaker, there are a number of things that go on, but I could not give the Member a specific example, for example, the Department of Health may be doing around its consumption...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the subsidy we have for small business is 1,000 kilowatt hours per month at the subsidized rate, but beyond that then it is full cost recovery in the sense of the rates themselves. We know that it’s out there, it’s an application-based program. I don’t have the actual percentages right now, but it has been discussed and we know that it depends on the amount of income businesses have on an annual basis if they qualify or not. The uptake hasn’t been as high and it fluctuates on a year-to-year basis, but I will get the information for the Member. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the area of the Territorial Power Support Program, as the Member stated, is to try to even out the cost of providing power to residents of the Northwest Territories, and we have, over the last number of years, been increasing the amount because of the growth and demand -- more houses out there as well as people in the North. We feel, however, initially when we put the plans together that there was no anticipation of such a jump in the price of oil, hopefully it will continue to come down somewhat. A lot of it depends on when fuel was purchased and how...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think in the whole area of energy and the impacts on our government, this program is one of those that would be a good thing to sit down with Members of this Assembly and go through to see if there are changes that we can make within the fiscal environment we operate in as well. Thank you.