Debates of March 14, 2007 (day 2)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The interim rate rider that was approved to the NWT Power Corp is typically asked in a rate application until a final decision is made. With the recent NWTPC general rate application, that is going to take, we figure, up to a year to get to final approval. In the interim there has been a case made that due to the increased cost of fuel and operating costs, that they do need an increase for their operating expense. We do say that it is refundable in the case that the final approval is less than what has been asked for in the general rate application, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 29-15(6): Interim Refundable Rate Rider

On January 10, 2007, before this interim refundable rate rider was effective, the Power Corporation’s fuel rider and the rider T was approved by the Public Utilities Board. So we have the fuel rider and the rider T approved by the Public Utilities Board. Now we have an interim refundable rate rider. I don’t understand what the differences are and what effects it will have for people on hydro on diesel. Could the Minister explain that to me? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Menicoche.

Further Return To Question 29-15(6): Interim Refundable Rate Rider

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. That’s a level of detail that I don’t have right now. There were not two riders in that application that was brought before the Public Utilities Board. It must have been a separate application for the T rider. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 29-15(6): Interim Refundable Rate Rider

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The information I have, okay, we have the approval of the fuel rider and the rider T for the consumers that are on hydro, and now we have an approval of this interim refundable rate rider. Is the Public Utilities Board, or is the Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board, going to be putting out any kind of a public notice that will explain to myself, my constituents and the people of the NWT, what the effects are of this fuel rider? The rider T is pretty cut and dried, but explain what is this interim refundable rate rider going to be and what the changes are going to be to people’s power bills. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Menicoche.

Further Return To Question 29-15(6): Interim Refundable Rate Rider

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. There are a couple of zones that we do speak of when there’s a general rate application; one’s hydro communities and one’s the diesel communities. The general rate application process is usually explained by the proponent which is, in this case, the NWT Power Corporation. I can commit to getting more information on this matter to explain to the Member and the public consultation process, and I’ll get that back to the Member, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Final supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 29-15(6): Interim Refundable Rate Rider

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for making that commitment, I guess, just for the public interest. I would maybe want to ask the Minister for a commitment that either the Public Utilities Board or the NWT Power Corp or his department, whoever, because we’re already into one month here that this has been approved; it’s been approved effective February 1, 2007, and I don’t think people even really know what it is that has been approved. Just for the public’s interest and how it’s going to affect their power bills, I would like to see something maybe in Monday’s paper, perhaps, you know, a full-pager on how, explaining what these rate riders are, what this interim refundable rate rider is and how it’s going to affect everybody’s power rates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Menicoche.

Further Return To Question 29-15(6): Interim Refundable Rate Rider

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think we can be publishing a full-page ad, but I can, once again, commit to getting more information out to the public if it’s with the Public Utilities board; or else I can contact the NWT Power Corporation, the Minister responsible, and see if we need more consultation or more advertising of this process for the rates, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I spoke to the administration of the sport governing bodies in the Northwest Territories and did some checking, and I know of seven that exist today and a new one is being formed. I’d like to ask the Minister of MACA, why did the department see the need to form another council for sport? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Return To Question 30-15(6): Administration Of Territorial Sport Organizations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The whole concept behind forming the NWT Sports and Recreation Council was to try to pull all the organizations under one roof and to set up a funding program that would give everybody a fair share of the dollars as they delivered their own programs. It was also a cost-cutting measure so that the organizations would start to share some of the administration, cut down on the administrative costs and be able to put more dollars towards programming. Mr. Speaker, this has been working quite well. All the organizations are operating under one roof. We plan to put our sports division, sports and youth division, in the same facility so that everybody can have close contact. It would also help improve our delivery of programs, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Supplementary To Question 30-15(6): Administration Of Territorial Sport Organizations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand Sport North has a board of directors made up of members of some of the territorial sports organizations. Now we have a new sports governing council. I’d like to ask the Minister, what is it that this new governance council will do that Sport North couldn’t do? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Michael McLeod.

Further Return To Question 30-15(6): Administration Of Territorial Sport Organizations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are expecting the new Sports and Recreation Council to ensure that all communities have a voice in the decision-making. It was, for the most part, from the smaller communities and from communities that didn’t have TSOs raising concerns over many years that they didn’t have a mechanism for them to talk about sports and recreation. This has changed now and we’re also expecting the Sports and Recreation Council, through this whole system, to streamline decision-making and also to streamline program delivery. We would expect, now that everybody’s working off the same page, that we’ll see more effective use of resources and we reduce money spent on administration. Again, that would result on more money being spent on programs. I guess the bottom line is that this would ensure that the resources that are out there for sports and recreation are spread across the board in a fair and equitable manner that all communities and regions can benefit. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Supplementary To Question 30-15(6): Administration Of Territorial Sport Organizations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know a lot of people who work in the sporting field and they’re all hard workers, but again it seems to me there’s a lot of sport governing bodies. I’d like to ask the Minister, with the formation of the new Sports and Recreation Council will the other governance groups be dissolved and amalgamated into this one big sports council? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Michael McLeod.

Further Return To Question 30-15(6): Administration Of Territorial Sport Organizations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re not in a position to tell anybody to dissolve or force them to dissolve. We’ve assured all organizations that they will continue running as they are currently operating. We have set up a board now with the sports council that everybody has a voice, everybody can share in the discussion. There’s a methodology of everybody coming together. We’re hoping that at some point some of the organizations are going to recognize that there is some merit to working under one roof, one umbrella structure. We’re not quite at that stage yet; however, some of that discussion with some of the organizations has already taken place and we’re hoping that will continue. As people become more comfortable working with the Territorial Sports and Recreation Council, I’m sure that we’re going to arrive at that point later down the road. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Supplementary To Question 30-15(6): Administration Of Territorial Sport Organizations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his answers. I said earlier that volunteers are overworked. I’d like to ask the Minister if this Sport and Recreation Council is going to make any effort to ease the administrative burden on volunteers? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Michael McLeod.

Further Return To Question 30-15(6): Administration Of Territorial Sport Organizations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That has been an issue for some time at the NWT Sports and Recreation Council’s meetings, and it’s been raised by a number of the organizations, and it’s been brought to our attention, and it’s something that we are really concerned about. As I indicated earlier, we are looking at ways that we can ease the administrative burden on all our organizations by either having better reporting or more user-friendly reporting systems, providing some of the additional dollars through some of our new federal programs that we’re hoping we’ll be receiving to provide some resources to help the volunteer organizations to deal with the accounting, deal with some of the administrative responsibilities that they have to carry now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my Member’s statement talked about the recognition of International Polar Year about the number of researchers and research institutes that are going to come to the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in regards to the International Polar Year how can the North benefit from the number of scientists coming here? More so, how can the community-based projects be strengthened and supported by these types of projects? Can the Minister please explain to me how can this be so as there’s none right now, I understand, by the researchers coming to the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment is responsible for licensing all scientific research that takes place in the Northwest Territories. So through that licensing process, we would expect that we would gain an understanding of the scientific research that’s taking place. Part of the licensing process requires that the scientists who are applying for the licence commit to reporting back on what information they have found. We also expect, as part of the application process, that they will advise us of how they are going to involve the local communities and how they will report to local communities, because we expect the scientists who participate in research in the North will also find a way to bring local communities and traditional knowledge into their work.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 31-15(6): Northern-Based Research Capacities

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to this government and this Minister in terms of monitoring how these scientists involve and report back to the communities. I want to ask the Minister in terms of how does the community get its needs met in terms of being involved in the research project? I mean you’re going to meet the needs of the scientists and meet the needs of the institutions. How does it meet the needs of the community in terms of implementing their traditional knowledge into a science that is internationally recognized, not just from the scientist but also from the traditional knowledge that is recognized as just important as the scientist? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 31-15(6): Northern-Based Research Capacities

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s a good question. Because we don’t have a university in the North which is sponsoring the researchers who are coming to the North, we don’t have a lot of control, or awareness even, of what is being proposed for International Polar Year. Much of the research is going to be done in cooperation with scientists who work in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. So by working in concert, we’re hoping with them, with ENR and the southern scientists, we’ll be able to ensure that there is a clear understanding that we want traditional knowledge to be incorporated in all the work done in the North.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 31-15(6): Northern-Based Research Capacities

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the two Ministers look at supporting the Aurora College in terms of promoting a position to support community-based research on social and cultural areas during the International Polar Year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 31-15(6): Northern-Based Research Capacities

Mr. Speaker, a lot of this is in the communities, but I’ll certainly make sure that Mr. McLeod and I are aware of the issues and look at them together.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 31-15(6): Northern-Based Research Capacities

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, would the Minister commit to looking at proposing to have a position at the Aurora College institute that promotes and supports community-based social and cultural research? We need a position; we need a staff person at the research centre of excellence in the Northwest Territories, because the Northwest Territories has a lot to offer to the world. We have to get that message to the scientists. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 31-15(6): Northern-Based Research Capacities

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll certainly take that recommendation under advisement. We’ll take a look at where we’ve got the resources and whether or not we can afford to do that. The staff at the ARI has recently been ramped up in order to accommodate the increased numbers of requests for research that we’ve been receiving over the past couple of years. So we’re hoping that we’re going to have the staff on hand to be able to handle the workload that we see coming over the next 18 months as IPY rolls out, but we may have to look at, as the Member suggests, increasing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for Mr. Roland, the Minister of Finance. It concerns the upcoming federal budget. Mr. Speaker, I would like to see if the Minister went to bat for tourism operators in the Northwest Territories who potentially face a major increase in the cost of their product sold overseas, because the Conservative government wants to apply the 6 percent GST to those packages, something that’s never been done before and creates an enormous barrier to these tourism operators. Did the Minister relay, on behalf of our tourism operators, objection to this move, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Roland.

Return To Question 32-15(6): Federal Budget Wish List

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on that specific issue, most of my focus has been around formula financing and how we work that through the system and get the issues recognized on that end. So unfortunately, I haven’t had an opportunity beyond the northern residents tax deduction piece, as well, to work with my colleagues and other Finance Ministers around the country to bring this issue up on a territorial perspective of tourism. I haven’t had any direct contact with Minister Flaherty on that issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Supplementary To Question 32-15(6): Federal Budget Wish List