Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re moving forward as fast as we can on providing energy efficient homes in the Northwest Territories.

A couple of days ago we announced our new EnerGuide 80 design requirements that will have energy efficiency at the forefront. We are also embarking on doing evaluations of all our public housing units across the Territories. We have 2,300 units, and we would like to do a rating on all of them and see if we can do some upgrades so that we can save some of the heating and energy costs and provide energy efficient homes.

We are also reviewing the situation of how we can...

First of all, we need to comply with the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. We have also looked at what the other jurisdictions are doing. We have talked to the transport officers in our departments and also talked to those in the public sector who work in the area of safety.

We look at all the vehicles that come from other jurisdictions, including right hand vehicles now, that are required to have compliant parts. A lot of these vehicles are coming because of the ability to sell them fairly cheaply in this country. However, they don’t always have adequate safety parts on them, including...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The emerging issue of right hand drive vehicles and the number of them that are coming into our area has been a concern for some time now. Most of these vehicles are coming from Japan.

We have been working toward and looking at developing a policy over the past spring. Earlier this summer we decided that we needed to move forward and put in a policy that requires right hand drive vehicles to be inspected on a 12 step safety and equipment inspection. Prior to that, we did not have a policy that applied to right hand drive vehicles, and there was a vehicle that was refused...

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to speak about an exciting initiative being carried out by the Petroleum Products Division of the Department of Public Works.

The Petroleum Products Division provides fuel sales, dispensing and delivery services in 16 NWT communities not served by the private sector and in 20 communities of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. For many years petroleum products destined for Beaufort-Delta communities have been purchased solely from northern Alberta sources, transported via rail car to Hay River and then loaded onto barges for transportation down the...

We had intended to come forward through the business planning process. However, if we can have all our initiatives firmed up so that we have a good understanding and some comfort that this is what we are going to do and if we have the dollars that are required, we would be glad to share that with the Members in writing.

We’re trying to focus on all the different aspects of energy efficiency, from public housing to home ownership programs, including people with low incomes. We would certainly be glad to work with the Member if there are any outstanding issues or concerns regarding people in his riding.

We have programs that most of the people can apply to currently and that may assist. But as to a specific program designed for energy efficiency for homeowners, that’s something we haven’t been able to firm up yet. We’re working on it and would be glad to share that once that’s done.

We certainly will commit to doing that, Mr. Speaker. We’ve nailed down the inspection requirements; we have informed all our staff.

My assumption was that it was also in public information so that people know what the process is. We’ll commit to looking at the Internet and other sources of having that information brought forward.

It’s a relatively simple situation, where one vehicle had a safety inspection and the other one didn’t. We approved the registration of the vehicle that had the safety inspection, and we required the other person who came forward to go through a safety inspection. And we did put the policy together to define what that would mean.

Mr. Speaker, today I would also like to recognize two hardworking young ladies from Katlodeeche First Nation. I was very proud to have two students here from my riding joining us this week, working as pages. I would like to recognize Miss Dawn Nessell and Miss Brandy Buggins and also their chaperone, who is Brandy’s mother, Betty Buggins. Both these students are from the Chief Sunrise school and are avid readers who also enjoy sports and can often be found volunteering in their community. They both have plans to enter the field of education. I also wanted to thank the Legislative Assembly...

Mr. Speaker, it’s not every day that the women outnumber the men here in the House. I would like to welcome all the students from Aurora College, especially the students from the second year Social Work Program. I have two former constituents who are in the program, and I would to welcome them: Nellie Norwegian from Fort Providence and Cecile Deneyoua, formerly from Fort Providence and now living in Hay River. I’d like to say welcome to both of them.