Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “2014-2015 Grants and Contributions Results Report, October 2015,” and “NWT Community Futures Program 2013-2014 Annual Report.” Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Strong Cultures, Strong Territory: GNWT Culture and Heritage Strategic Framework 2015-2025.” Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I pointed out that I had a couple documents that I would table, pictures of the Minister smiling with kids. The first document is Northern Journal, dated Tuesday, August 26, 2014, and the second item is from the NWT Literacy Week 2015, September 21-28, and the Minister again is smiling with kids. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Colleagues, pursuant to Section 40.23 (2) of the Public Service Act, I wish to table the Annual Report of the Equal Pay Commissioner for the Northwest Territories for the period of July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015.
Item 15, notices of Motion, Mr. Bouchard.
I give notice that on Thursday, October 8, 2015, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that Mr. Paul Delorey of Hay River be appointed as chair of the Northwest Territories Honours Advisory Council.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Blake.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, October 8, 2015, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that pursuant to Section 15 of the Official Languages Act of the Northwest Territories, that Ms. Shannon Gullberg of Yellowknife be appointed as Languages Commissioner for a term of four years;
And further, that the appointment be effective immediately.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, October 8, 2015, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that the Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the GNWT consider development and coordination of government-wide programs to teach official languages of Northwest Territories to senior managers of the GNWT departments as appropriate to the regions which they are responsible;
And further, that the government provide a comprehensive response to this motion to the 18th Legislative Assembly by June 2016.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bromley.
MOTION 54-17(5):
CLIMATE CHANGE PLANNING
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, October 8, 2015, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that the Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories develop a comprehensive and long-term climate change mitigation and adaptation plan in anticipation of the projected effects of climate change;
And further, that this action plan include a strategy for shifting the Northwest Territories from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, including targets recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent from by 2020, and by 80 percent by 2050, each from 1990 levels;
And furthermore, that the government provide a comprehensive response to this motion to the 18th Legislative Assembly by June 2016. Mahsi.
WHEREAS under Section 11(1) of the Northwest Territories Act (Canada), the Commissioner may dissolve the Legislative Assembly;
AND WHEREAS under Section 11(2) of the Northwest Territories Act (Canada), writs for the election of Members of the Legislative Assembly are to be issued on the Commissioner’s instructions;
AND WHEREAS under Section 3 of the 2015 Polling Day Act, the Legislative Assembly may, subject to the power of the Commissioner to dissolve it under subsection 11(1) of the Northwest Territories Act (Canada), continue until October 26, 2015;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that this Legislative Assembly request the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories to dissolve the 17th Assembly of the Northwest Territories on October 25, 2015, to permit polling day for a general election to be held on November 23, 2015;
AND FURTHER, that the Speaker transmit this resolution to the Commissioner.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 71, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2015-2016, be read for the first time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Motion is carried.
---Carried
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 71, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2015-2016, be read for the second time.
This bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Question has been called. Motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 71 has had second reading. Thank you. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 45, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act; Bill 49, An Act to Amend the Deh Cho Bridge Act; Bill 54, An Act to Amend the Forest Management Act; Bill 56, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2015; Bill 59, Estate Administration Law Amendment Act; Bill 60, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act, No. 2; Bill 61, An Act to Amend the Public Airports Act; Bill 62, An Act to Amend the Coroners Act; Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Victims of Crime Act; Bill 64, An Act to Amend the Co-operative Associations Act; Bill 65, An Act to Amend the Safety Act; Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, No. 2; Bill 69, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 2; Minister’s Statement 221-17(5), Sessional Statement; and Tabled Document 324-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016; and I will put you in extended hours today. Yes, I will.
---Laughter
I want you working until 10 o’clock tonight, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order for today. What’s the wish of the committee, Ms. Bisaro?
Thank you, Madam Chair. We’d like to continue with Tabled Document 324-17(5) and then the bills as listed in the order on the Order Paper: 56, 59, 62, 63, 64, 69, 45, 49, 60, 61, 65, 68.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Agreed. We’ll commence with that after a brief break. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
I would like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. When we adjourned yesterday, we were dealing with Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016. At this time, before we resume with page 6, I would like to ask Minister Miltenberger if he would like to bring witnesses into the Chamber.
Yes, I would, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses to the table.
I would like to welcome back Deputy Minister Mike Aumond and Deputy Secretary to Cabinet Sandy Kalgutkar with the Minister here today. As I said, we left off on page 6. I will read it out. Finance, deputy minister’s office, not previously authorized, $22.129 million. Total department, not previously authorized, $22.129 million. Yesterday I still had on my list Mr. Bouchard and I had Mr. Bromley. On the matter of the $22 million, if Mr. Bouchard is ready. No? I will go to Mr. Bromley, thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to follow up a little bit on Ms. Bisaro’s comments. This is primarily motivated by low water which is causing the need for diesel power generation in lieu of not having any other green energy generation capability at this moment in time. I guess I’ll start by saying this is shameful to me, given that the same thing happened last year. I spoke very clearly on this, both in the media and in the House and to the Minister, and yet, exactly the same thing happened again this year.
I am happy that committee is now committed to beginning work on this, albeit belatedly and modestly. But, again, just to follow up with Ms. Bisaro’s comments about the need to bring this into our fiscal planning and so on. Just with a couple of minutes of thinking, looking at the costs of climate change, and these are impacts that are consistent with climate change, extreme events that we have not seen before. Last year we had $60 million for fire suppression costs, through the roof. We had the Inuvik Airport, Hay River Airport, we had Highway No. 3, the Dempster. We had power generating costs of $20 million, or $15 million actually. Five million dollars went into this fiscal year and now we’re proposing another $22 million for this fiscal year, so that would $27 million.
Really, we’re talking now about hundreds of millions of dollars, and I know it’s affecting our fiscal planning. We can’t have those sorts of unplanned for costs without that. It’s exacerbated, of course, because of our low net fiscal benefit compared to our predictions during the devolution negotiations.
I’m wondering: has the Minister sat down to try and summarize and collect and do a financial accounting of impacts that are pretty directly related to climate change in the last few years.
