Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is about the potential of biomass and the generation of power through biomass, both buying power from maybe a provider or supplementing some of the high costs up north, generating power maybe through biomass. Has the Power Corporation investigated this potential and where are they currently at with that?

My next question is concerning some of the potential high demand for some of that power and is there any potential for the expansion of the Taltson hydro system.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Most of us have our own memories of bullying. Some of us probably have been bullied. I’m sure a few of us have helped defend someone against bullying. I’m guessing none of us have actually been bullies. The victims of bullying feel hurt, stress, humiliation, fear and even depression. Some attacks that pass as bullying might more accurately be called assault. It really saddens me to think that this still goes on in our schools and our schoolyards, not to mention cyberspace.

I know that since 2001, the Department of Education has had some sources to help schools and school...

I think the Minister kind of indicated a little bit about this, but my question is: Is there still consideration to build a transmission line south to Alberta or Saskatchewan to allow us to sell some of our power during peak demands in their areas and actually buy cheaper power when the demands are lower at different times of the day?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. I’d like to ask him what the current negotiations are with some of the potentials that affect the Hay River area such as companies as Avalon and Tamerlane, a couple of mining companies.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On December 15, 2011, the Hay River Airport was renamed in recognition of Hay River pioneer, long-time Hay River resident Merlyn Carter.

After acquiring his pilot’s licence at 17, Merlyn moved from Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, to the West Channel in Hay River to assist his parents with their commercial fishery. He later started Carter Air Services Limited, which he operated for 40 years. Merlyn was instrumental in assisting dozens of young men to start as pilots, including Joe McBryan, Perry Linton, Darcy Fleming and others who had successful lifetime aviation careers.

For...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad the Minister took me all the way back to before I was born in 1967. I appreciate that, but as I indicated in my Member’s statement, the population of the Northwest Territories has only increased 7.5 percent since 2000, but our budget has doubled. Can he indicate to me why those costs are so great when we’ve only increased by 7.5 percent?

If we’re continuing to do reviews of the operations on an annual basis, how do we include the public or our public sector employees to contribute to some of these cost reductions the ways that we do some cost reductions or the way that we can make the government more efficient? How do we include the public or the public sector?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a new Member here I’d like to discuss the budget process that this government is involved in. During the process, the government has introduced an act to increase the borrowing limit and we are asking the federal government to increase our debt limit. Not once during this discussion have we discussed the cost reductions in our O and M. I know this is a scary discussion, the fact that we may look at cutbacks or even to make the operations more efficient, but what is scarier is the fact that since 2000 the operations budget has doubled from $600 million to $1.2 billion...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The biggest concern obviously is the Tuk to Inuvik highway. I am in support of the funding. I do wish this was in the South Slave. I think we also need some of the work and some of the economic development, but I think it is better to move ahead with this project, get the upfront work done, do our due diligence. At the same point, I have some concerns to make sure that after that due diligence is done, we have an evaluation of this project. At that time we can assess whether we want to carry forward. Hopefully at that time we will have worked out our deal with the...