Once again I’d like to reiterate to the Minister that it’s a cry from our whole territory, as well as a request from this side of the House, that the ministry and the government look at a one-rate system or a levelized rate system. I’ll just ask again: what kind of work will this government be doing to work toward that?
I will also let the Member know that I also come from a community that has high power rates, high energy issues. In terms of our communities, certainly the energy committee will be looking at the merits of a one-rate zone. We’ll be having discussions with Members from the House to look at the best options and what avenues we have available for us to implement whatever recommendation we agree would see a rate zone stabilized or a rate zone that would be satisfactory to the people in our communities.
I’ll ask it a different way. The Minister Responsible for the NWT Power Corporation has been instructed by this side of the House, by several motions, to look at moving toward a one-rate zone or levelized rate zone. I’d like to ask: what work has been done to work toward this, to develop a proposal, to look at the different ways of providing that type of service?
Certainly, we have our marching orders from the motion that was passed in this House in terms of looking at the issue the Member’s talking about.
We have worked with the lead Minister, Hon. Bob McLeod, in terms of heading up the Ministers’ Energy Coordinating Committee. We have set down some terms of reference as to how we’re going to carry out our work. We have looked at this with our own Crown corporations in terms of our capital costs and how NWTPC does its capital costs. That will help with looking at the rate issue. We certainly are on our way. We’ll be eagerly waiting to sit with the Members to start looking at the process for, once and for all, making some announcements in terms of how we go about reducing our costs in the North.
That’s exactly the point. We are looking toward how we are going to implement a one-rate or levelized zone. It doesn’t mean the government has to do it, but the government should take a good, serious, hard look at it. I believe you do that by developing proposals and bird’s-eye view outlines of it. I’d like to know when this government will start that.
Mr. Speaker, the understanding from the lead Minister, the Hon. Bob McLeod.... The Ministers’ Energy Coordinating Committee will start as soon as possible. We do have the terms of reference and are ready to go to work. As soon as we are done here, we are ready to go to work taking action on the motion that was passed in terms of looking at the restructuring in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Mr. Speaker, I, too, have questions in regard to the high cost of energy in the Northwest Territories. My question is directed to the Minister of the energy committee, Mr. Bob McLeod. In light of the motions that have been passed in this house, and also realizing we have a major threat on our hands with the high energy costs and the effect they’re going to have — from governments to our residents to our business community — I’d like to ask the Minister: how soon will we be able to see some correspondence back from the ministerial committee in regard to acting and moving on some of these recommendations and motions passed in this House?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for energy initiatives, Hon. Bob McLeod.
We’ve undertaken this work, and we’ve submitted draft terms of reference. As soon as we get some feedback on the draft terms of reference, we’ll be able to start the process on the review of the rate. We’ll be looking at hopefully having something we could introduce in 2009.
Mr. Speaker, in regard to the 15th Assembly, I believe work was already undertaken by the Northwest Territories Power Corporation board, but it happened that they all got axed for doing that. I’d just like to ask the Minister: since the work has already been done, have you looked at reinstating the work that has been done in the 15th Assembly by the Northwest Territories Power Corporation?
It is our intention to resurrect all of the work that has been done in the past and utilize that in the review of the rates by the committee. It is also our intention to talk to the public and other stakeholders. Certainly the work that was done on the single rate would be very useful in determining the options we would be bringing forward for review.
Mr. Speaker, just a verification: I believe that was the 14th Assembly.
My question to the Minister is: what’s exactly the next step? We do have questions with energy costs. We have problems with our territorial power support program. I know it’s a large thing we are talking about with hydro expansions and whatnot, yet we can’t lose sight of the biggest cost we have, which is diesel costs. I’d like to ask the Minister: are you looking at the whole — diesel fuel for transportation, the logistics and, more importantly, the cost of where we can get cheaper diesel fuel to run our diesel communities?
There are quite a number of different aspects of the energy costs, and through the Energy Corp coordinating committee we are trying to ensure that all the Ministers who have responsibilities have input into the process. I guess the most urgent thing is to look at ways to reduce the cost of resupply for diesel fuel. I think we’re doing that through the Department of Public Works.
Also, as part of this rate review we’ll be looking at the cost of the regulatory process. We want to see if that’s adding to the cost of fuel for people in communities. We will also be looking at the way the Power Corporation establishes or recovers their costs and sets their rates. We would also be looking at how other jurisdictions do it to see if there are better ways of doing business.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final short supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister mentioned that they’re looking at having a report out in 2009. Is there a possibility that Members on this side of the House could see a draft report prior to that, say before this fall sitting, so we can have an idea of where you’re going with this and so we can also have input into the process?
It’s our intention to work very closely with the standing committees and any Member who is interested in the high cost of energy in the Northwest Territories. We’re starting the process with the draft terms of reference. We’re looking forward to receiving comments from the standing committee.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the need for a sexual health program in Hay River. I wanted to ask the Minister if she was aware of a proposal that was submitted back in December of 2007 from the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority in this regard — I know we’re in a budget restraint time — and if there are any federal, or any, monies she may be aware of that could initiate this. In Hay River, as with many communities in Canada, we have a relatively unstable complement of physicians, and we have a high turnover in that area with locums. Building community capacity to deal with some of these health issues would be a great benefit.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of the proposal submitted by Hay River Health Authority to give them funding to deliver community-specific programs. The last time I talked to my officials, I believe that was under active consideration in an effort to put it into the next business-plan process. I could also advise the Member that we have been successful in getting some money from the Public Health Agency of Canada for a coordinator position for a three-year term. That position is starting this May. I don’t have a whole lot of details on that, but we are making some progress in that area.
With regard to this, I do applaud the efforts of the staff at the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority for coming up with some of these innovative programs. They have very good programs dealing with diabetes and some specialized areas that we see as emerging problems and issues.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if I could advise the authority and the people of Hay River that there would be a very good opportunity for such a program to be funded and staffed in our community.
Mr. Speaker, I could tell the Member we are actively considering that proposal from Hay River. I can’t give the Member an answer as to what the outcome of that might be. We are looking at a territorially coordinated approach to address STI concerns. We do have an STI strategy the department’s working on, and that includes looking at specific programs not only in Hay River but in the Tlicho area as well, where there is an active proposal coming forward.
We’re looking to expand the Tele-Care program to include STI components. There is some work being done to do some social marketing in this area. There is a lot of work being done to address this in a territorially coordinated way. I will undertake to get information from the department again as to exactly where we are with the Hay River proposal, but there is a coordinated approach being taken.
I’d like to ask the Minister: is there any precedent for any units within any other health authorities that are dealing specifically with this challenge?
Yes, the department has funded different programs and proposals such as the conference that the Dene Nation sponsored on STI issues, and the Tlicho community has their own proposal. We do have quasi-independent authorities who are interested in addressing some specific issues that are of more interest to their area. The department does pay attention to those.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Transportation. I understand the Department of Transportation is currently putting through a new vehicle registration system. I’m curious: is that new system capable of facilitating a tiered vehicle registration rate system?
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The new vehicle system we’re about to implement into the department’s main office here to upgrade our system…. I’ll have to get back to the Member regarding the capabilities in terms of upgrading to a two-tier system.
I hear the Member’s comments on how we could benefit people in the North in terms of carbon emissions and vehicle registration. I will certainly take his comments into consideration and pass that on to the deputy to work with the Member regarding his suggestion as to our vehicle registration system.
I look forward to finding out whether that system is actually capable of doing a tiered system.
Obviously, the reason I ask is I think it’s time for us to re-examine how we do registration rates in the Northwest Territories. Currently we have one rate. All vehicles are the same. If you look at other jurisdictions, like I said in my Member’s statement, some jurisdictions use different systems such as carbon emissions, mileage or gross vehicle weight.
I was wondering if I can get the Minister responsible for Transportation to commit to exploring the possibilities and conducting some research into tiered vehicle registration systems to see which one would be the most appropriate for the Northwest Territories in order to help us help consumers make more productive, environmentally responsible, choices when it comes to purchasing and registering motor vehicles.
Mr. Speaker, certainly the Member raises some very interesting, good ideas in terms of our service and what we can do to help the consumers in terms of the carbon emissions in relation to their issue with the vehicle registration. I will be happy to sit down with the Member to talk with him and bring forth other ideas we could implement in our new system to help our consumers in the Northwest Territories with the vehicle registration system.
I look forward to sitting down with the Minister to talk about a tiered vehicle registration system.
I guess the one question I need to know before we move any further forward on that is: what is the timeline on implementing the new registration system for vehicles? Is it something that’s going to happen in the next two, three, six months, or is it something scheduled for a year or two down the road?
Mr. Speaker, if all things go according to plan, we hope that within less than two years we would have our system iron out the kinks, iron out the things we need to have a smooth transition of our new vehicle registration system.
Also, this will allow us some time to have some discussion. I have heard about the two-tier system for some time. I have talked to my deputy about it and asked if it’s possible. Anything is possible in terms of ideas that would enhance our program and certainly enhance the ability of our consumers to reduce some of the carbon emissions in the North here.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I spoke about taking steps toward addressing the high cost of living, gaps in municipal services, infrastructure needs in small communities and a joint committee to address these issues.
I’d like to ask the Premier: when can the Members on this side of the House expect to receive notice of a meeting for this important joint committee?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since I made that commitment to Members, we’ve had staff pulling the items together to see how we would structure this and some of the initiatives in that area that could be looked at. I’m hoping we can have something for Members, at least a draft form, to review and get some input on, if not by the middle of the week, early next week.
Will the Premier commit to placing the cost-of-living item on the Cabinet agenda so his Cabinet representatives can keep the committee informed and keep the cost-of-living issue on the front burner?
Mr. Speaker, the issue of the cost of living in the Northwest Territories is one we realize needs to be addressed. That’s why it forms one of our strategic initiatives. As we proceed forward, we will be dealing with that on an ongoing basis. Once we have this committee set up, we will be working with that committee on an ongoing basis to keep that forward.
Is it a type of situation where we actually have to have the item on Orders of the Day? I think as we deal with the initiatives that lead into the budget, working with the committee will help keep that going.
Can the Premier commit to assigning public service duties to a department that can support this important initiative?
If I understand the question right, assigning responsibilities for delivery in this area to a department…. All of our strategic initiatives involve a number of departments, so we would have a key Minister working with departments and then a committee.
I would be prepared, as well as committee, once we sit down with Members — and we’re hoping to have that before Members head off after session here — to look at how we can structure that. I’m prepared to add that to the list, to see how we can formulate and make this work.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Premier for his support in this important cost-of-living issue for the Member for Tu Nedhe.
No question there. This is question period..The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke about NTPC in my Member’s statement. I’d like to direct my questions today to the Minister Responsible for NTPC, Mr. Yakeleya. I’d like to ask the Minister, first of all, if he has any indication of when the next general rate application is coming forward from NTPC.
