Debates of February 4, 2015 (day 52)

Date
February
4
2015
Session
17th Assembly, 5th Session
Day
52
Speaker
Members Present
Hon. Glen Abernethy, Hon. Tom Beaulieu, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Blake, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Dolynny, Mrs. Groenewegen, Mr. Hawkins, Hon. Jackie Jacobson, Hon. Jackson Lafferty, Hon. Bob McLeod, Hon. Robert McLeod, Mr. Menicoche, Hon. Michael Miltenberger, Mr. Moses, Mr. Nadli, Hon. David Ramsay, Mr. Yakeleya
Statements

Speaker’s Ruling

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. No point of order. Thank you. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s time that we start working on this particular problem. If I described it as a sandwich, we keep shaving down the two pieces of bread without worrying about what’s in the middle and we’re ignoring this problem. Millions of dollars through the PUB process get acknowledged that turn into profits that go to this southern company. Even the Town of Hay River is saying that they need to do business differently.

So I call upon this government with a little action maybe the Premier could explain to us here clearly, not just to me but all Northerners, how we can review this distribution process so we can work to achieve the same goal, making living affordable here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

I presume the Member has some hard and fast figures that can prove his research in that the price of power will decrease by 10 cents a kilowatt hour, but on this side we don’t have the luxury of making those statements without thorough review and due diligence. Communities have the authority to decide on their distribution. Hay River has a franchise agreement that will come due in November 2016 and we know that everybody is interested in reducing the cost of living. We will consider what Hay River is doing, we would look at it, taking all of the policy issues into consideration on this very complex issue and there are a number of very complex policy issues that we would have to look at. Thank you.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.