Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me Mr. Michael Aumond, deputy minister of Finance; Mr. Russ Neudorf, deputy minister of Transportation; and Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, deputy secretary to the FMB.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2012-2013. This document provides for a decrease of $1.26 million for capital investment expenditures in the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

Major items in this supplementary estimates include:

$300,000 for the Department of Public Works and Services for investments under the NWT Energy Plan for energy upgrades to the Grandfather Ayah School in Deline;

$375,000 for the Department of Justice to complete the renovations of Courtroom No. 1 at the Yellowknife Courthouse;

a transfer of $3.9 million from...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents, entitled Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2012-13, and Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2012-2013.

As well, I wish to table the following two documents, entitled the Conference Management Authorities Species at Risk Annual Report 2011-2012, and the Northwest Territories Species at Risk Committee Annual Report 2011-2012.

Thank you. I agree with the Member that the whole area of wood gasification is of great potential and of great interest to us. Combined heat and power as it now exists, as far as I understand it, is for every megawatt of power electricity that you generate, you have to be prepared to somehow capture and put to use four megawatts of heat, four to five megawatts of heat. So it is an area with challenges. We are looking to the day when, as we watch the technology expand, of something that would be applicable in the communities that are in the Boreal Forest and maybe those outside where we could...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reality is we have to and we are doing both. Yet, as we laid out for the people and for the Members that there is a rate cliff because there’s been no increase in power rates for the last five years, the fuel prices have continued to escalate and rather than put the burden fully on the ratepayers that buy power, we put that subsidy in. At the same time, we are making significant, and have made significant, investments: $50 million or so in the last Assembly towards solar, biomass, wind, improving our energy standards, rebates for people to help them convert to more...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, October 31, 2012, I will move that Bill 14, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2013-2014, be read for the first time.

The solar strategy that’s going to be coming out is going to have ambitious targets in there to try to displace up to 20 percent of the diesel in communities that are currently being used for generation of electricity. We are looking very closely at the work that’s been done by Diavik as they have invested about $30 million into wind turbines, which we think has great applicability to helping deal with the energy circumstances and challenges that are currently facing the community of Inuvik. In fact, the community of Tuk could also benefit from that type of installation, for example. The...

Thank you. Just concluding, in fact we’ll be having operational the rebuilt Bluefish site, which is about a $37 million investment in hydro. There is a tremendous amount of work that’s been done on the Taltson expansion, for example, and now we just have to have the debate on the transmission line and how do we proceed to link those two systems so that in fact we can become more energy efficient.

Everything we do as a government is looking towards the long-term of minimizing our costs and reliance on fossil fuels. Our Greenhouse Gas Strategy is predicated on trying to limit emissions and that’s...

Nine, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled Natural Resources Conservation Trust Fund Annual Report, 2011-2012. Thank you.