Jane Groenewegen

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. There are a number of matters before us on our agenda.. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Minister Miltenberger made a brief reference to this theory or concept or myth that’s out there in the public that if it costs this much to generate, distribute and retail power in the Northwest Territories, that if we actually reduce our consumption, the unit price is not going to be changed, because they still need to receive a return on their investment. I’d like the Minister to speak to that issue. People are saying, well, if we use less , the unit price will go up and we’re not really going to accomplish anything.

Could the Minister please elaborate on this to dispel that myth?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about the possible advantages of doing more about conservation when it comes to energy and I was speaking particularly about our high cost of power. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation.

I don’t know if I should have been in marketing, but I thought of a few campaign titles if we were to actually launch a campaign to encourage people to reduce their consumption of energy. I mentioned Ghostbusters. How about The Lights Are on But Nobody’s Home? I came up with a few others here too. I was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few of us today are going to be talking about energy, and I would like to add my voice to that from the angle that I’ve been contemplating.

With Halloween just having passed last Friday, I’m going to talk about ghost busters. Everybody knows about those little lights that are all over in your house. They call them phantom or ghost consumers of power.

What I would like to do is challenge people to go into their homes and look around their kitchen and the night table beside their bed and look at how many cell phone chargers they’ve left plugged in when they’re not...

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t doubt or deny that our government has spent millions to try and protect consumers from the rates, but I think we need a campaign directed at the consumers at a household level to get them to do their part in tandem with the government’s efforts to try and reduce their consumption.

Has that kind of a program ever been researched, and could there be projections done to see what kind of gains we could achieve from that? Thank you.

That could be the title of another couple of campaigns: Urban Legends and Something About Myths.

Back to my question, what has this government done to launch any kind of a campaign directly targeted at consumers to encourage them? He’s named some things that the Power Corporation is doing, but what has this government done directly targeted at consumers to encourage them to reduce their consumption?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take this opportunity, as well, to recognize our former colleague – as Mr. Miltenberger said, many years here in the Legislative Assembly – and it’s very good to see former Premier Floyd Roland. Last night as my daughter and I were waiting for guests – we were going to the Explorer Hotel – Dr. Suzuki walked in the lobby, and my daughter, who’s only 25, said, “That’s David Suzuki,” and I said no, no, that isn’t. Anyway, I had to be proven wrong today. But welcome. It’s very nice to have you here. People recognize you, young and old obviously. Thank you.

I will call the House back to order. Can I have the report of Committee of the Whole, Mr. Bouchard?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to again say thank you to the Minister and his department for putting this on pause until we can get it right.

Will the Minister keep us apprised? I will be very interested to see what the 23 communities do, and I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d keep us apprised of the feedback he gets from those communities. Thank you.