Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve got some questions today for the lead Minister on the Strategic Initiatives Committee on the Cost of Living. I’d like to start off by saying, obviously, it’s an important issue to everybody across the Northwest Territories. Many of my constituents and everybody else’s constituents all face an exorbitant cost of living. I’d like to ask the Minister what specific areas is her committee currently working on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for the Strategic Initiatives Committee on the Cost of Living, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to jog the memory of everybody here, Mr. Speaker, the Strategic Initiatives committees were set up at the beginning of this Assembly in order that our government could work across the departments to advance the priorities that were set out by the 16th Assembly. All of the work that we have been doing in these committees -- and there were five committees set up: Building Our Future, Managing This Land, Reducing the Cost of Living, Maximizing Opportunities and Refocusing Government -- had been added to the budgets that we have considered and approved, both in O and M and capital. I understand from Member Bisaro and Member Ramsay today that they would like more information on that. Last time we offered to have a briefing we were told they didn’t really like us very much and they just wanted to talk to Refocusing Government. But we will be happy, as soon as committee has time, to come and give the Members in-depth information on what we’ve been working on.
Just to give the Members a little bit of an update, much of the work of the committee has focused on reducing the cost of living in communities by investing in transportation projects, highways, airports, winter roads, investments in housing to do with the quality issues, as well as to make some changes to income support and the Power Subsidy Program. A lot of our work had to do with energy initiatives, and as Minister Miltenberger mentioned, we have agreed, between all of us, that the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee will take on the two big projects, which is the hydro and electricity review. Once that’s completed, if it gets incorporated into action, it will come back to us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’d like to ask the Minister, and that’s a good statement that she’s made today, but what specific initiatives has the Cost of Living Strategic Initiatives Committee taken to Cabinet for inclusion in the budget. She talked about a myriad of different things. Specifically, what has that committee taken to Cabinet for inclusion in this year’s budget? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’d be happy to give the Member a list of them, because we have already approved some of them in our capital project last year, and we are into year two and three of those projects. Those are investments in winter roads in the Sahtu area, extending the runway at some of the airports in the Sahtu and other communities. I don’t want to miss out any other communities. We have put investments into the NWT Housing Corporation. We have made investments into income support and power subsidy programs. The money that Minister Miltenberger talked about investing in the Arctic Energy Alliance so that we could give information awareness and investments about benefits to consumers in terms of the cost of living, those come out of this committee. Mr. Speaker, there is a whole list of them that already are in our capital budget. I would be happy to give them a rundown on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will provide them as soon as I can. Thank you.
I would like to ask the lead Minister for the cost of living if her committee is taking a look at the Deh Cho Bridge Project and its potential impact on the cost of living to residents in the North Slave region and all communities serviced by air out of Yellowknife. Has that gotten to her committee? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as the Member is aware, the Deh Cho project is quite advanced and it is in charge of the Minister of Transportation. I believe the Minister of Transportation has answered some questions about cost of living implications. I beg to differ on some of the opinions the Member has on that. I think the Minister, and department, and the government has been willing to provide information that the Member is looking for. Thank you.
I will take that as a no. I guess the other thing I wanted to ask the Minister is how often does the committee meet and whether or not she could share the agendas of the meetings with Regular Members. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as I have stated, at any time the committee wants to meet with us, we are available. We are ready to give the Member information. I will say it again, that all of the budget items that have gone, that we have talked about in this committee are in our budget to consider. If you would like that identified, we would be happy to do that. Any other documents that the Member wants, I will provide that to him. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
