Debates of October 23, 2008 (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, the subsidy’s consumption level of 700 kilowatts hasn’t been changed since 1988. For the number of users that rely on this subsidy, more important are the months of November, December, January and February.

I’d ask the Minister of NTPC in terms of these subsidy rates…. Since it will be a while until we’re going to have some discussions on changing it, in the interim could the Minister tell me that the Power Corporation is looking at some initiatives and incentives for people in our communities down in the Mackenzie Valley in terms of putting in some meter-reading smart devices that will show people that they are coming close to the subsidy level and that it’s time to unplug some of their appliances so they can save some money? Right now there aren’t any. Can the Minister tell me these meters could be something they could look at in the interim?

Speaker: Mr. Speaker

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

I believe the term, and the Member may have said it, is smart metering. That’s available and has been used in southern Canada. That’s something that can be taken into consideration as we progress forward. I know over the last number of years the Power Corporation itself has upgraded many of the metering systems in our communities that help reduce this operating cost. This is another area that can be looked at and something that will be taken into consideration.

I was going to mention that it’s something we could do a little with the Arctic Energy Alliance: sharing responsibility with the community and our own Power Corporation. There’s going to be lots of discussion.

Again, I appreciate the Minister’s response in terms of something we could look at. Would it be something they would consider down in the Mackenzie Valley within the next couple of months? These meters are out. They’ve been used in B.C. Can we start in some of the smaller communities up North to show that we are working with them, so people in the small communities can say, yes, we are doing something for them? They would take on some of the ownership of the energy they’re using in their communities. Can the Minister advise the House if that’s something that’s possible within the short period of time before Christmas?

The changing of meters isn’t as straightforward a process as just making a decision to do that. In fact, I would say that we would need to have a serious look at this. The Power Corporation does a business plan themselves and puts it together, so I’d be prepared to get a briefing note ready and provide that for the Members.

Can the Minister advise people that with these smart meter readers there will be initiatives looked at in one of the regions in terms of implementing this project? I think that’s really something the people would appreciate in our communities in terms of being responsible and taking ownership of their use of power. I think that’s something we look forward to. Again, I would ask the Minister: can he do that as quickly as possible and within the time frame of the next couple months?

I will request from the Power Corporation that we pull this information together and provide it to Members for their review.

Speaker: Mr. Speaker

Thank you, Minister Roland. Final short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to this information getting pulled together by the NTPC to look at the community.

I would ask the Minister again: in terms of some solid commitment to the people in the region can these meters even be looked at by the Housing Corporation to see what they can do to implement this in public housing? Give us something to take back home. Give us something that even the private homeowners can have to be responsible for in terms of the power. That’s what I’m looking for.

The metering situation that’s out there is done by the Power Corporation solely. The Housing Corporation doesn’t have that. If there’s any changing of meters, it would be through the Power Corporation itself. As I’ve stated, we will prepare information and bring it to Members for further discussion.

Speaker: Mr. Speaker

Thank you, Minister Roland. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Question 32-16(3) Regionalization of Government Operations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Premier. I mentioned in my Member’s statement the other day that the Premier has a couple of times talked about regionalization of government. Yesterday — and I’m working from unedited Hansard from yesterday — he said that we have “initiatives that we have yet to kick off, which is the regionalization of government operations.” I would like to ask the Premier what is meant by that statement.

Speaker: Mr. Speaker

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is one of the initiatives I laid out early on in the life of our government as one of those strategic areas. It’s looking at how we operate and the delivery of services in our communities and how they’re delivered from a regional aspect to a community aspect. Looking, for example, at the future of the development of the Northwest Territories when it comes to governance, with the self-government tables happening in those regional bodies, does our delivery fit within that? We haven’t been able to get to that yet. As we work on that initiative, we would be prepared to go through committee with what we’re planning to put together. But there haven’t been terms of reference and a lead Minister or any of that put to that section as of yet.

I thank the Premier for the answer. I’m a little confused. I guess I need to ask the Premier if the intention of this initiative is that it will be a strategic initiative committee, like the other five that are currently in place.

I contacted Members earlier on the strategic initiatives. It was one of the ones highlighted, so it would fall under the strategic initiatives category. We would look at that same sort of development as we go forward. Again, as Members had requested that we look at the makeup of that, that would also fall into that category.

Maybe it’s me this afternoon, but I’m having a really hard time understanding what the Premier is meaning. Perhaps I could ask him to give me a hypothetical example of a change that would be considered regionalization of our services.

Mr. Speaker, the process we are involved with now is some of the work being done, in a sense, by other initiatives; for example, Refocusing Government, looking at the delivery of services from a board and agency perspective, how we align with the departments and are working in those regions, what level of authorities are made at the headquarters versus regional operations and should that change or remain the same or be enhanced or tightened up? In a sense, with that are the accountabilities with that responsibility.

Speaker: Mr. Speaker

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, and thanks for that answer. I guess I would just like to ask something that’s occurred to me a couple of times as we’ve had various discussions about any number of things. There was quite some time ago a suggestion that perhaps education programs might be changed. For instance, high schools might be brought to a regional centre instead of leaving them in each individual community. Could the Premier comment on that, please?

Mr. Speaker, again, this area hasn’t been brought up to the same working level as the other strategic initiatives. We haven’t got the terms of reference. So that type of thing has not been looked at, at this stage. The Refocusing Government piece is looking at delivery and how we work with boards and agencies, but on the actual program delivery side this piece hasn’t been put into action as of yet. I’ll commit to Members that as we get this piece up and running, we’ll be sitting down with Members to give them what it’s starting to look like and get their input.

Speaker: Mr. Speaker

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Question 33-16(3) Implementation of Traditional Knowledge Strategy

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources and concerns traditional knowledge. Members have had some discussions in terms of traditional knowledge implementation by this government. I’d like to ask the Minister: could he update the people in the North and the people in Sahtu about the progress of traditional knowledge implementation in terms of the discussion we had in the previous government? How will traditional knowledge be implemented in my region in a government-wide approach?

Speaker: Mr. Speaker

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of traditional knowledge is an important priority for the Government of the Northwest Territories. ENR has continued to work as the lead department with other departments to advance this so that government-wide it’s ready and applicable. We will be speaking to this in the coming weeks as we move forward with the business plan. The commitment will be that within the course of the next round of business plans we will have a government-wide traditional knowledge strategy that is implemented across government.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the hard work the Minister is doing in terms of moving this type of issue forward for our own people. I’m very happy. I would like to ask if he can tell me, if he’s privy to the information, how much concrete strength we’ll have on a government-wide approach in terms of putting traditional knowledge into the government’s present policies and regulations and making it stick, in terms of his report, with certain programs and services.

Mr. Speaker, I can give three specific examples. The water strategy we’re working on for the Government of the Northwest Territories has built in as a key component the issue of traditional knowledge as it pertains to water: the decisions made with water, the natural capital and how it fits in with western science.

With things like transportation, for example, I’ve always heard the example of the Trout Lake Airport, where we didn’t listen closely enough to the knowledge of the people on the ground. The airport was located the wrong way.

I remember working with the Member in Health and Social Services. We would have traditional knowledge and elders brought to the health centre to assist with the healing and delivery of those services, similar to what was set up in Yukon.

Those are the areas we’re going to try to build on and expand on across government.

Mr. Speaker, I’m very happy to hear that. The Minister made several references…. Certainly in the community of Délînê it was the same with our school. People said there was a school that was built on an underground waterbed creek. I’m looking forward to that type of information in terms of how traditional knowledge will be implemented into certain areas. Would this include education programs also in government-wide initiatives? Justice? Language? Housing? I guess I’m looking at the weight of traditional knowledge in today’s government. How strong would it be for the people in our region?

It has significant weight. I point the Member once again to the business planning process, where that issue will be clearly articulated. There will be an opportunity to talk and review with every department as they review their business plan with the appropriate committee about traditional knowledge and how it’s going to be implemented in those various departments. It’s a cross government initiative. The commitment is to have this once and for all put into practice within the life of the next business planning cycle.

Speaker: Mr. Speaker

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Would the elders be involved in terms of carrying this traditional knowledge into the government in the system we would have? Would there be a place for them to bring this traditional knowledge to the forefront?

How it’s brought in may vary, but the fundamental point is the one that the Member has indicated: the role of the elders, the handing down from generation to generation of traditional knowledge. That will be built in department by department across government. It will all be ready for review as we come forward into the business planning process here in the next number of weeks.

Tabling of Documents