Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the area of the cost of living in our communities, there are a number of initiatives that we are undertaking. Some of it has been highlighted today in Members’ statements; the electricity review, for example. The effects on the commercial rates would then be passed down to the customers in many of our communities. That is one of the biggest things we are looking at doing.

The other area, as the Member has highlighted in his Member’s statement, would be a little more difficult to deal with in a sense that how a business operates when someone wants to go in and cash...

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of avenues that can be undertaken by individuals and, again, it would be a case-by-case scenario. If there is, for example, private homes, the Housing Corporation could be of assistance, depending on the situation. As the Member pointed out, if there are arrears that come into play, then individuals can sign a prepayment plan that may be able to make them eligible for applying again, but I’d have to further confer with the Minister of the Housing Corporation on the specifics.

I would say that maybe here’s an opportunity that we can put the Member and the Minister...

I can name probably in the neighbourhood, let me see, how many thermal communities will go into that zone? About 22 communities. Now, I know the Member feels that’s just a shuffling of the deck, but that is real lower costs in our communities that will be spread out to the commercial base and to the customer base and the overall cost of living in our communities. Structurally as the Power Corporation and as the Government of the Northwest Territories, we know we need to increase our rate base in the sense of more people and more businesses in the Northwest Territories and to invest in these...

Thank you. Just further to the first question the Member had, the Power Corp review was in the neighbourhood of $200,000 to get that done. The initiatives we’ve undertaken under the electricity rate review does do substantial changes to the way we deliver power.

As the Member pointed out earlier, yes, the Member feels it’s a shuffling of the deck, but it is real change because if we did not do any changes, in fact, the Power Corporation would be coming forward today, in fact would have already been working at a general rate application that could go towards just what was raised by Member Bisaro...

Thank you. We believe that June, coming forward with the minor changes as a result of discussions with Members, that we’ll be able to come forward in June for implementation in September. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 6, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2010-2011, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 6, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2010-2011, be read for the second time.

This bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

The city of Yellowknife and the surrounding area served by it, hydro facilities up to the city of Yellowknife over 70 percent is served by hydro. We have to run the diesels from time to time to offset some of the outages and the high demand times. The fact is if we were to build this project purely on the existing rate base, it is unaffordable. We could not pass that extra cost on to the individuals.

The Member spoke about Avalon. We would like to see that development occur. The issue is, at six cents per kilowatt hour we’re unable to develop any new extension of our facilities at that cost. We...

As the Government of the Northwest Territories we are keenly interested in working with partnerships out there and expanding our hydro, for example. I think the Member can, although we said earlier that he has spoken on a number of occasions around the Hydro Strategy and alternative energies and has not seen any fruition, I would say, to take a little bit of claim here. We over the next number of years are going to invest $60 million in alternative energies, run-of-the-river technology. So we’re starting to move in that direction. It is a slow process, granted, but we are in fact moving in...

The interests are being represented, one, to help growth of the Northwest Territories through an economically viable project. Members have already said on a number of occasions that we do not want a repeat of where we are guaranteeing or backstopping and having to put additional dollars at risk. This model is based purely on the business-case scenario.

What I think I’m starting to hear is that, well, as a government maybe we should step in and put more involvement from the government side. That is a different scenario altogether. It’s been based on a business case. It’s been built on building...