Robert C. McLeod

Lowering the cost of living is one of the agreed-on priorities of this Assembly. In addition to the efforts that I’ve outlined earlier in this exchange, all of the departments are being tasked with examining their business plans to look for opportunities to lower the cost of living for NWT residents. I expect that we will have some proposals that we will be able to put in front of committee during the business planning review that should help. We continue to encourage people to move North to grow our population. This helps with our Territorial Formula Financing, and the more money we have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Premier and the Ministers, we take every opportunity we have to engage with the Prime Minister and the federal Ministers on issues like the Nutrition North program. We are fortunate that this term we have a Member of Parliament who is part of the governing body, and we also have a Minister from Nunavut who understands the food problems that Northerners in isolated communities face. We also know that the program is being reviewed, and we’re hopeful that positive changes are coming. We continue to lobby the federal government to follow through on their...

I take the Member's point about the high cost of leases. I think I have seen some of the numbers, and they are paying a fairly high cost. We can make contact with the claimant groups to see if there is a preliminary discussion we can have. As the Member said himself, we don't want to start a side table to deal with this. I will commit to the Member that I will make some contact with them and see if we can initiate a discussion as to how we can move forward.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Lands has already instituted lease-cost breaks for seniors, in recognition of high lease costs. The department is also examining the lease payment structure in settled and unsettled areas and how leaseholders can gain title through outright purchase or lease. The options in the unsettled area are quite limited. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker and wish to table the following two documents entitled “Inter-Activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000, April 1 to December 31, 2015” and, “Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 3-18(2): Arctic Winter Games Mission Staff.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Alfred Moses will be absent from the House today to attend the Arctic Winter Games in Nuuk, Greenland. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When the formula funding review group reviewed all that, they took all that into consideration because they felt that in the past there has not been any increase due to inflationary costs and the higher cost of doing business. The plan was to initiate that work at the beginning of the life of the 18th Assembly, but we thought that, at that time, during the 17th Assembly, if we took advantage of the opportunity we had to start that work, when the new 18th Assembly came in, they would have all the information they needed to go forward. Rather than start the work now and have it done in two years...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we had a lot of feedback from the communities because a lot of communities were part of the group that reviewed the formula funding. We had a lot of feedback from the communities. We had a lot of feedback from the NWTAC, which represents all 33 communities in Northwest Territories. Thank you.

The structure of the P3 agreement with Northern Lights is such that the ownership, design, and construction of the fibre line was a transferred risk from the GNWT to Northern Lights. Additionally, Northern Lights has the obligation to fulfill the requirements of the regulatory permits. As indicated by Northern Lights, the cost of remediation was borne by Northern Lights in accordance with the project agreement. Unlike a traditional build procurement, the construction risk was transferred by the GNWT to Northern Lights.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our department officials will be assessing the options available to the GNWT under the Project Management Agreement to ensure that the work gets completed. This will include working with Northern Lights and the communities to ensure construction can be completed early in 2017 and the line commissioned shortly thereafter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.