Debates of March 10, 2009 (day 26)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 12, Securities Transfer Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill enacts a uniform Securities Transfer Act to govern the transfer and holdings of securities and the interests in securities consistent with legislation currently enacted or being enacted in all provinces and territories. The bill provides for consequential amendments to the Business Corporation Act, Personal Property Security Act and Seizures Act. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Bill 12, Securities Transfer Act, has had second reading and will be referred to a standing committee.

---Carried

The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 13, An Act to Amend the Commissioner’s Land Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill includes amendments that would provide the Residential Tenancy Act does not apply to Commissioner’s land under a lease authorized under the Commissioner’s Land Act, designate the Minister or a person authorized by the Minister as the person responsible for initiating court proceedings regarding wrongful or unlawful use, possession or occupation of Commissioner’s land, limit the liability of the Commissioner as an occupier of Commissioner’s land, include a regulation-making power respecting the posting of security when Commissioner’s land is leased for a commercial or industrial use and make other minor amendments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Bill 13, An Act to Amend the Commissioner’s Land Act, has had second reading and is, therefore, referred to a standing committee.

---Carried

The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 14, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Motor Vehicles Act. A new short-term permit is created and an application for a driver’s licence may now be made based on a licence that has been expired for up to two years. Nurses are required to report medically unfit drivers in the same manner as is required of a medical practitioner. A person is prohibited from operating a vehicle with obscure or damaged lights or reflective devices and drivers are required to reduce their speed when close to emergency vehicles with flashing lights. The registrar’s duties are clarified with respect to sharing disclosure use and protection of records and personal information. Access to accident reports are enhanced for persons involved in accidents and drivers and employers are held liable for intervention in operation of commercial vehicles. The authority for a demerit point system is expanded as is the Commissioner’s authority to enact regulations for repair, maintenance and inspection of vehicles. Reference to jurisdiction is given greater precision and other minor improvements are made throughout the act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Bill 14, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act, has had second reading and will be referred to a standing committee.

---Carried

Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 7-16(3), Ministerial Benefits Policy; Bill 5, Professional Corporations Act; Bill 9, Northern Employees Benefits Services Pension Plan Protection Act; Tabled Document 25-16(3), Supplementary Appropriation No. 1 (Infrastructure Expenditures) 2009-2010, with Mr. Bromley in the chair.

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole together. We have before us Tabled Document 7-16(3), Bill 5, Bill 9 and Tabled Document 25-16(3). What is the wish of committee? Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee wishes to proceed with Tabled Document 25-16(3), Supplementary Appropriation No. 1 (Infrastructure Expenditures) 2009-2010, and then Bills 5 and 9, if there’s time, in that order. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Very good. Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Does the committee agree?

Agreed.

Thank you, committee. We’ll be starting with Tabled Document 25-16(3) after a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. The committee has agreed that we will deal first with Supplementary Appropriation No. 1 (Infrastructure Expenditures) 2009-2010. I’d like to ask, first, if the Minister has opening comments. Minister Miltenberger.

Yes, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

I am pleased to present Supplementary Appropriation No. 1 (Infrastructure Expenditures) 2009-2010. This document outlines a reduction of $300,000 for operations expenditures and additional appropriations of $8.5 million for capital investment expenditures in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

The items for capital investment expenditures include:

$2.5 million for the costs associated with the installation of wood pellet heating systems in GNWT facilities;

$6 million to advance construction of the all-weather access road from Tuktoyaktuk to Gravel Source 177, a Building Canada Plan project.

Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to review the details of the supplementary appropriation document.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Would the Minister like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Does the committee agree?

Agreed.

Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

I’d like to ask the Minister to introduce his witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have with me Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of Finance, and Sandy Kalgutkar, deputy secretary to the FMB. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. General comments. Mr. Ramsay, did you have general comments?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll just wait until we get to the detail and ask the question on that page. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Does the committee agree that we go to detail?

Agreed.

We’ll start on page 5, Education, Culture and Employment, operations expenditures, education and culture, not previously authorized, negative $300,000.

Agreed.

Total department, negative $300,000.

Agreed.

Page 6, Public Works and Services, capital investment expenditures, asset management, not previously authorized, $2.5 million. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess at the onset I’m very happy to see the government looking at biomass and the installation of wood pellet heating systems in GNWT facilities in both Hay River and Fort Smith and in other communities around the Northwest Territories. Just a couple of questions, though. I don’t know if the Minister has the answers for me today, but it takes a certain kind of distribution system, storage, you need a truck to deliver the wood pellets on a bigger scale like this. You can’t just buy bags of pellets at the hardware store and expect somebody to throw them in the hopper. I mean, it’s going to take some infrastructure on the ground. Is there a distribution system in both Hay River and Fort Smith? Is there a company in both of those communities that could look after the distribution of the wood pellets? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct; for volumes of this nature we’d be looking at moving to a truck. There are suppliers in both communities, and once, if this money is approved, part of the planning is going to be for the suppliers to be prepared to upgrade their delivery capacity. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Minister for that. For the procurement of those services, is it just going to be how we procure other services or is it going to go out to tender or is there only one in each community? I’m thinking it may be a business opportunity for people in both those communities to get into business. I’d like to see a competitive type of process take place. I’m just wondering if that will happen.

I anticipate that there would be a public process given that they’re both larger communities with potentially more than one supplier.

That’s good. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s in regard to these type of projects I think that we have to seriously start implementing these type of projects in high cost communities. No offence to Fort Smith; we’ve made a major capital investment last year in regard to electric heat, putting electric heat in a bunch of public facilities and a lot of infrastructure dollars went into that, and also into the heating systems we see here in Yellowknife, now Hay River, Fort Smith. But I think we have to do something in regard to the high cost communities in the northern part. I mean, the northern part, north of the Arctic Circle. I think it’s important that we start seriously looking at implementing those type of projects. I’d like to ask the Minister when we can see these type of projects, either residual heat or improving our heat systems, in the northern part of the Northwest Territories where there are high costs to maintain public infrastructure in that part of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Projects planned for 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 are going to be on the reserve. We’re looking at Fort Simpson, Aklavik, Inuvik, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Buffalo River, Enterprise, Deline, Fort Providence, Lutselk’e, Tuk, Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope, Whati, and Jean Marie River. There will be more communities added as the detailed energy audits and plans are completed.

I noted the Minister mentioned Aklavik, but I’m not too sure what type of project you’re talking about. You were talking wood pellets. It’s going to be very expensive not only to get it in there, but to store it and have the...because it’s an isolated community in which you have to take into account large storage facilities. Maybe you can elaborate on that.

One thing we also have to keep in mind is out of the energy plans that were done by communities, there are only three communities that have done their energy plans. The majority of those are large communities. There are 30 communities out there that still have not even gotten around to developing their energy plans. I think in order to access a lot of these capital projects, you have to have that concluded. I’d like to ask the Minister what efforts are being made to ensure that the work is being done in communities so that they’re able to develop these energy plans to find ways to reduce the high cost of energy use in a lot of our communities and also reduce our consumption of fossil fuels in those high cost communities.

There are over the next two years, 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, $450,000 in this particular Alternative Energy Fund to work with communities to complete their community energy plans so that we’ll have a clearer idea of the projects that may make the most sense and fit in with the priorities, including Aklavik.

Maybe the Minister can elaborate on the Aklavik project, since you mentioned it. What project is it?

I’m not in a position to give many specifics other than we want to work with every community to look at the type of alternate energy project that makes the most sense. If it’s biomass, if it’s wind, those are things that have yet to be determined.

Again, I’d like to ask the Minister, in regard to reducing the high cost of fossil fuels, that there are motions coming forward by way of trying to get us off certain types of fuels. And for myself I think that in a lot of our diesel communities where we have a high dependency on diesel fuel, it’s finding ways to break that dependency. I know for a fact that we have a residual heat system in Fort McPherson and the government has done everything in its power to not use that system. It’s already in place, it’s there, but there are no real plans to expand this project to other community facilities or to look at ways of doing that in other communities. I think in regard to Aklavik they have to replace the existing shop facility for the Housing Corporation or the local housing authority, which is right next to the new power plant. I’m wondering if that can be considered as something going forward for residual heat in that housing shop, which is right next to the brand new power plant that was put in place in Aklavik last year.

There are plans to work with communities that are appropriate for residual heat. I know Fort McPherson -- the Member has raised the issue -- is one of the communities that there is an interest in commitment to looking at making sure the residual heat not only is working, but if there is a possibility for expansion to other buildings, we want to look at that as well. We want to leave no energy saving stone unturned here in our quest to get off fossil fuels or to be as efficient as we can.

Last question. In regard to this project coming forward by way of a supp, why was it not built into the capital planning process you’re talking about developing the Energy Plan, looking at the different plans that have been put in place by the government so you actually have a plan of how we’re going to lay out this infrastructure and not just pick out a couple projects at a time? I still feel this government has to make more investment in the northern part of the Territories. All the projects to date have been south of Yellowknife, around Yellowknife and Hay River and Fort Smith. I’d just like to know what this government is doing to ensure these are part and parcel of the overall capital planning process. It doesn’t have to come through by way of a supp. I’d just like to know what we are doing to ensure that these projects are part of the budgetary process that we follow and not have to come forward by way of a supp, which again is not previously authorized. It should have been planned out through the capital planning process.