Statements in Debates
Merci, Monsieur le President. Last week I made a Member’s statement on the future of renewable energy in the North Slave region. I would like today to talk about the role of the Northwest Territories Power Corp. with regard to renewables and its relationship with the new energy plan announced in this House last week. In the fall of 2015, NTPC issued an expression of interest for joint venture proposals to provide 10 megawatts of electricity through wind and solar in the North Slave. In April of this year, we learned that the process was cancelled. A number of proposals were received and...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. While one of my colleagues was talking reductions, I’m looking at increases in this table for the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority and Tlicho Community Services Agency. There’s some large increases in staff, and those are good things, I think. I just want to hear from the Minister the reason behind this. I think the Hay River situation probably has something to do with this opening of the new health centre there, but can the Minister and his staff explain the rather large increases there? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. There are a number of reductions here, and I’m just wondering if the Minister and his staff can describe what these positions are and whether they’re vacant or not. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the Minister can probably detect some frustration from this Member. I don’t know where this Federal Engagement Strategy is. There’s been a lot of talk from the Cabinet about this for months. I still don’t have an idea about when it’s going to be completed. We already spent $2 million a year for these health benefits, which people should expect, and that’s the way that we’ve carried out our health care system here for a number of years. This is not a question of lobbying the federal government anymore. This is a question of the law, that the Supreme Court of Canada...
Thanks. A nice short answer, I’ll try to keep my questions shorter too. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I am glad that the witness mentioned the hydrometric network. I know that there is quite a bit of discussion behind the scenes to help improve the network. I am just wondering if the Minister would be able to speak to the ability of the department to continue to expand that network over the next couple of years. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn’t want to dump on my colleague, but I did hear a couple remarks here that just started to set off some alarm bells for me. I think I heard the deputy minister say that they’re going to reopen negotiations. I’m hoping that we’re not looking at the whole arrangement unraveling at this point though the territorial government wanting to make a bunch of significant changes. I know that some of the other parties to these negotiations have had significant amounts of time invested and energy, and commitments from third parties that are time-dependent. I just get worried...
Not on this page. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There’s a whole variety of changes here between 2015-16 and 2016-17 for a number of these programs. I don’t want to drag us through them all, but I noticed that in the Health and Social Services budget, they actually had a helpful line at the end of similar sort of programs where they said this was the end of a funding arrangement or here was the date that this arrangement ended. That I think would probably pre-empt a guy like me from asking all sorts of questions. I’m trying to be helpful here. I even got a thumbs up from the Minister of Finance. I don’t think that’s...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Will we continue to work with Wilfrid Laurier in any way, given that this was a ten-year partnership with them? Thanks Mr. Chair.