Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under program delivery details it’s characterized as interest expense.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a significant number of things that the government is doing. I agree with the Member that there is nothing stopping individual families from going out and installing a woodstove, especially in the larger communities where they have access to the supply and they can get the woodstoves insured. With our Biomass Strategy, we have converted a lot of our own buildings and other communities’ buildings to biomass. We’re, in fact, looking at work on the value-added piece with pellets. We’re looking at what’s the best technology to use in combined heat and power in some...

Mr. Chairman, this particular item I believe it says it is in relation to the Housing Corporation, not the Power Corporation.

Mr. Chairman, there are two main reasons these numbers are built on the 2009 tax year when we were in the midst of the significant economic downturn. The Member is correct; they have an ability to reach back three years, as well, when they are doing their taxes to work out the most advantageous arrangement to themselves. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll speak to the borrowing limits and I’ll get Ms. Melhorn to speak to the shared services piece.

Our position in regard to the borrowing limit has been clear and consistent. We’re involved in a government-to-government negotiation and discussion with the federal Finance department. There’s been a review of the three territories’ borrowing limits. This is an issue of specific concern to us so we’ve been very proactive in dealing with the federal government. We’ve had meetings just before Christmas when we were in Kananaskis, a chance to talk to the Minister of Finance...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2010-2011; and Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2010-2011. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we have to do both, which is what we’re doing. We have to make the long-term commitment to change how we generate, distribute and deliver energy, electricity, heat. We have to minimize our reliance on fossil fuels. In the meantime, after 16 years, as you will well recollect the discussion in this House of coming up with a fair rate structure for Northerners that doesn’t in many cases cripple small businesses. It’s something that is an interim measure as we take these longer-term steps to restructure and rebuild our infrastructure in terms of the generation and delivery of...

Those are all good questions that, hopefully, we’ll get addressed as we do this critical debriefing, as the weather subsided and services restored, and we can take that careful measured look at what happened and what needs to be done to avoid this type of circumstance in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The fundamental approach was that the current... Before we implemented the changes, there was a commercial power support subsidy that was not being used that the commercial businesses were paying the fully burdened cost with no subsidy in the communities, hence some of the power rates in stores and such of $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, $30,000 a month. What we’ve done now by setting rates for the thermal communities is we’ve lowered the cost per kilowatt and the benefit now to power commercial businesses is significant and fairly applied and they don’t have to ask for it...