Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks to the Minister for the response. The North Slave Resiliency Study basically recommends against investing in renewable energy in the North Slave. Can the Minister indicate what the position of this government is regarding investment and renewable energy in the North Slave region?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Surely, though, we must be spending some money on caribou by ENR. I know they are developing a Bathurst Caribou Herd Range Plan. They have some aerial surveys that they work with the Government of Nunavut on the calving grounds, so is the money for that work found somewhere else in here? Or am I just not seeing it somewhere? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to talk today about the future of renewable energy in the North Slave Region. The Northwest Territories Power Corporation recently cancelled the request for expressions of interest to introduce major renewable energy sources for the North Slave region. Yesterday, the Minister of Public Works and Services tabled the North Slave Resiliency Study in the House. That study basically recommends against investing in renewable energy. As we all know, the low precipitation in recent years has crippled the hydrogenerating capability of our Snare and Bluefish...

No thanks, Mr. Chair. That is good news. I appreciate the responses. Thanks.

Thanks for the answer. I will try to work with the department to continue to expand that network. The last question I had, Mr. Chair, is contract services: there is quite a large increase there from the previous year. What is that additional money going to be used for? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

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...