Michael Miltenberger

One of the functions we are taking over from the federal government that has some funding attached to it is a Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program. We have that venue and process that we will be looking at, as a government, in terms of providing the monitoring that’s necessary. We’ll also work with the land and water boards. At this point, there are no plans for an independent monitoring body at this juncture. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to thank the Members for their comments and just acknowledge that this has been a very complex process and a long process, decades in length. At least probably five governments have been working on this particular issue.

As the comments indicate, there is still not anonymity. I’m hoping that there will be critical support to move this forward to the next phase and that at this juncture, after all this work, that we can take that leap of faith from an archaic, old piece of legislation that originally came to us from the 1950s and is thoroughly and sorely outdated...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The intention is to work with the NEB and with the Sahtu Land and Water Board to look at the new requirements, and review and assess the various proposals and projects as they come forward. We, as well, after April 1st, are in the process collectively of contemplating and planning for what type of regulatory regime we want to have. We want to have a northern-based, northern-driven, northern-controlled regulatory process. We want to make use of the technical skills of the National Energy Board, and we want to be clear, as we go forward, that we have northern control of...

Yes, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, October 31, 2013, I will move that Bill 28, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2013-2014, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, I also give notice that on Thursday, October 31, 2013, I will move that Bill 29, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2013-2014, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in fact in the last Assembly we did those roundtables and they were based on revenue generation and we did look at taxation. We did it for three cycles, if my memory serves me correctly. The consistent feedback we got from Northerners across the regions, when we brought them to Yellowknife, was that this was not a good time to raise taxes. Thank you.

Every year for months we have budget cycles and, of course, this Legislature and the Members are involved in the budgeting process and if there was a unanimous decision on the other side of the House to say we want to raise taxes here, there or wherever, of course that would have a bearing. But the reality is two things, that they are fully involved and we have listened to the debate and concerns around the North and we’ve been through this House year after year with budgets and we have been holding the line to not add a burden on our businesses or on our residents and we are continuing with...

Everything about energy provision is engineered. It has to be engineered the proper way; it has to be engineered for efficiency for economy and for practicality. What we’ve done with the rate restructuring was to, in fact, bring a greater clarity, streamlining to the rate systems. Instead of 33 rate zones, we have two. We’ve pegged the rate of residential power across the North to the Yellowknife rate. Yellowknife has some challenges, but we have to keep in mind the whole Northwest Territories and these improvements have benefited all Northerners. Is there still work to do? Absolutely, which...

Mr. Speaker, in fact I do believe, as well, that Alberta has the same challenge with a significant amount of workers it brings in mainly from eastern Canada on an ongoing basis. We have had discussions about the challenges they face. I haven’t had any immediate or recent discussions with our northern territories. I have had more discussions with Alberta as they struggle to come to grips with the same issue. They may have come up with no surefire solutions, either, because the planes still fly on a weekly basis full of workers returning home or on shift change. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s from the budget year ‘12-13 and what it notes here is they completed 39 projects to date and we have an appendix attached, which lists all of them right from Yellowknife NSCF right down to Behchoko Chief Jimmy Bruneau, and things like installing biomass systems, electrical heat conversions, energy retrofits, lighting retrofits. I think committee has that.