Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are addressed to the Finance Minister and the lead Minister for the Refocusing Government committee. I’d like to ask the Minister, in the preparation of the 2010-11 budget by the Minister, what consideration was given to the coordination of energy projects and initiatives to coordinate them into one area or one body, and was that reflected in the budget. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee that plays a very lead role in terms of bringing together all the resources and planning functions that relate to that. Tied into that, in an advisory capacity of course, we have the Climate Change Committee. There are tie-ins with other work that’s being done in terms of electrical rate reviews and those types of things. We’ve also committed to the broad government approach to redo our Greenhouse Gas Strategy, but the central focus for government here in this Assembly has been the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee chaired by my colleague Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thanks to the Minister for that response, but I think he kind of made my point for me. We have a strategy. We have a plan. We have a committee. We don’t have one body, one organization, which takes everything that we are doing in terms of energy and puts it under one roof, which, as I said in my statement, directs the traffic. I think that’s something that’s necessary. I’d like to know from the Minister what sorts of Cabinet discussions have taken place in regard to the possibility of establishing something like an energy secretariat. Thank you.
I’ll restate my answer a little more clearly. The Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee plays that function. It’s comprised of the chair, Minister McLeod, the Premier sits on that, Minister Michael McLeod sits on it, I sit on it, and I believe Minister Robert C. McLeod sits on it as well, and we have some of the senior staff of government as we look at how do we best put into play all the resources we’ve dedicated, as well as making sure we have the appropriate planning processes to best marshal all our forces going forward. Thank you.
I accept the Minister’s response, but again, that plan, the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee does not look beyond the Government of the Northwest Territories. If we’re going to have anything that is going to get us to a good place, we need to involve all the residents of the Territories, not just this government and its employees. Again, there is no one body which is looking at all of the things that we do in terms of energy and putting it under one roof. The Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee, for instance, I don’t believe is involved in an education campaign to try and get people to turn off the lights when they leave a room.
Having said that, I’d like to ask the Minister: we have an NGO who does an awful lot of work for us, the Arctic Energy Alliance. I’d like to know from the Minister why we can’t put them to work for us, either to act as an energy secretariat or to help us develop an NWT-wide coordinated energy plan. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that the territorial government, in fact, looks far beyond its own operations as we look at things like the Taltson hydro project to get power up in the North Slave Geological Province. We’re working with communities to help them get their community energy strategies in place. We are a major funder for the Arctic Energy Alliance, which we, I would point out, have taken from death’s door one Assembly ago and we’ve funded them to the point where now they are doing a significant amount of work with us on conservation, on advice on a lot of other energy initiatives. We have a Biomass Strategy. We’re coming forward with mini-hydro. We’re redoing our Greenhouse Gas Strategy. We’re doing an extensive amount of work as a government, both in our own operations as well trying to plan for the whole Territory, working with communities and other organizations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I have to thank the Minister for making my point for me. He said we have this, and then we have this, and then we have this, and then we have this. We need a coordinated plan. I would like to know from the Minister, if the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee is so coordinated, where is the plan on paper that I could get from the Minister and when can I have it? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, We have a number of… You can look at departmental strategic plans. You can look at the business plan. You can look at the Energy Plan that is in place along with the Greenhouse Gas Strategy, both of which are in the process of being updated to reflect the changes over the last number of years. We have, of course, the work that we’ve pulled together and offered to committee in terms of briefings on the ongoing work of the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
