Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 42-16(5), Supplementary Estimates No. 1, 2010-2011 (Operations Expenditures), be now concluded and that Tabled Document 42-16(5) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in a formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The lowering of the commercial power rates in the communities, I can see it acting as an incentive for business. How that translates into lower prices for consumers is a piece that I don’t quite understand how the government is going to have a hand in or ensure that that happens before we get people too excited that the price of groceries is going to go down because the cost of power for the local grocery store is going to go down. How does the government see, actually, that money not just being... The business of operating with high power rates for a while and if a...

Mr. Speaker, $60 million is a fair amount of money and if we’re going to spend $60 million over three years, I’d like to ask the Minister if the capacity is available to this government to sort out how we’re going to spend those funds and actually see the results of them and not have this money lapse in some fashion. How are we doing on that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of the interim measures agreement and the unsettled claims and access to inventories, what does the government see as their role in persuading or creating agreements with First Nations that would make it financially viable for them and for the users of this product that could be developed here in the Northwest Territories? What does he see is the government’s role in that process?

Where are we at in terms of determining whether or not the inventories for the harvest of product that could be made into pellets is available and sustainable in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not by collusion, I want to speak to the electricity rate review and the good news. Minister Bob McLeod was down to Hay River on the weekend and spoke to the NWT Association of Communities, and the news about the power rates was well received and the people are looking forward very much to those next couple of years of some relief on their power bills.

We need to view that two years as a window of opportunity to get very serious with that substantial amount of money that we have set aside as a government to consider green energy initiatives. One of those is the whole...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With hearing all this discussion about the new polar bear licence plate, it has me thinking about the polar bear brand and how it has been for so long associated with the Northwest Territories. It took many years to create that brand and that association.

I have an idea I’m going to throw out to the Minister. Ms. Bisaro said she doesn’t like to see waste and what are we going to do with those old licence plates. Since they cost $10 to buy the new ones, I think people should be allowed to trade their old one in for a new one. Then the Government of the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t want to belabour this licence plate issue, but I am not understanding why the Department of Transportation wants to dispose of the old licence plates. There are non-profit organizations, youth groups, sports associations, all kinds of people that if you won’t trade a new plate for an old plate, understood, but people can turn their old plate in to the Department of Transportation. You could in turn, instead of disposing of them, give that to some organization. They’re light as a feather, you can mail them out to people, and somebody could make money off these...

People put all kinds of things on the front of their vehicles. I didn’t know it was illegal to put a valid driver’s licence on the front of the vehicle. That’s news to me. I’ll have to make sure I don’t ever do that.

So the Department of Transportation is not willing to be the receiver of these plates to be recycled for any organization. So I guess it’s just, I think the whole idea of them being dipped in something is a bit of a red herring. I don’t think that’s going to stop people from collecting or reselling or doing anything. I guess all we can do is throw it out there that if somebody...