Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker, the process we’re involved with looking at the ATCO proposal is one I’ve laid out with Members as well as with key stakeholders involved in this. The process we’re using is one that as the GNWT is the sole shareholder. Yes, GNWT works for the people of the Northwest Territories. As we would with any business case and any public corporation, as well, work with their key stakeholders to do an evaluation. We’re in that process. The proposal itself is one that just starts the process, and we will be moving forward on that basis. Once the initial work, as I’ve...

The discussions that we’ve had to date with the Power Corporation staff, that issue of employment came up, concern around that. One of the things I shared with the staff at the Power Corporation head office was just that we are looking towards maximizing our employment numbers, in a sense, because it only helps us overall when it comes to our status and our Formula Financing Agreement, as well. So that is always a part of the consideration as we move forward.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was indeed a pleasure to travel to Hay River and meet with the Power Corporation senior staff, as well as all the other employees, and the town council, as well, around this issue.

Things have moved slowly. We are working on a number of initiatives prior to getting right into the ATCO proposal itself. As the Member has pointed out, we’ve just, through the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee, been doing the wrap-up on the rates regulation piece that’s out there, we’re about to send off information to Members about the NTPC review specifically.

In the meantime, we...

The process involved, number one is to qualify for some of these areas, and some of these are agreements that are in place that we have to sign with the federal government and then work with the criteria as well. I understand he has come to that stage and is ready to sit down with Members to give them information on that. Hopefully we will be able to get the time together and get more information on that. But it is in the system and it is very close to being finalized in the sense of agreement between the federal government and ourselves.

This fund is an application-based fund. It is not set out per capita or an allotment made out. Traditionally, for example, when a federal program and dollars are announced, if it’s a billion dollars, we qualify for just over $1 million. So this is not the case. This is project by project. We are using, for example, though the list has not been compiled in the sense of all potential projects, but because it’s cost-shared, we have to come up with our own dollars and we tend to use projects that are in the system already established. We have a number of projects, as Members are aware, that are in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, I look to the authority of this House. The Members here represent the people of the Northwest Territories from quite a diverse range of communities and businesses and individuals. So our work would start here. We would decide how far we’d go and I’d also caution Members that we need to be careful in how we approach this. If we’re going to do every business case that we’re involved with by going out to the public, decisions won’t be made for quite some time. People of the Northwest Territories have made it quite clear they’re looking for some...

Mr. Speaker, our process, again, is involved with working with Members as we would move forward on this and from time to time, involving key stakeholders in our decision-making. If we are going to move forward beyond looking at a proposal, then we would engage in a process to involve those that we feel need to be a part of that overall process. Right now things have been delayed. We don’t expect some of the discussions to really start in the sense of what it might be to expand looking at that proposal until probably fall time, late fall, late August, into September. Thank you.

The idea, the concept, the work that needs to be done and the meetings following that will definitely have to come back to Members of this Assembly as we decide what the future may hold and what the possibilities are as well.

The Member is correct. The proposal and the discussions that have taken place today, and even reviewing this, it is a partnership approach that we are looking at and, again, we have much work to be done before we can get into that level of discussion. I should also add that we have committed to continue communications between the town council and the employees, and working through the employees through the board. We’re hoping to get some correspondence just to give them an update as well.

I understand that the Honourable Bob McLeod is working on this initiative and is prepared to come forward with projects that he’s been looking at or the involvement that they’ve had. So that is something that we’re tapping into as well. Part of the problem is we’ve been trying to get the details and what would qualify under these programs, and as that detail has become available, we’ve started to put the focus on some of those projects.