Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Premier. It goes back to my Member’s statement where I talked about the federal government and investing dollars in Northern Canada. I have to say, the other day I was really impressed that the Yukon government looks like they’re getting $71 million from the Government of Canada to invest in the Mayo hydro facility enhancement and stage 2 of the Carmacks-Stewart Transmission Line. It got me thinking whether or not our government has had any discussions with the federal government in terms of coming to the plate on the Taltson expansion and whether or not there might be some federal dollars there. I’d like to ask the Premier: Has our government had any discussions with the feds on getting some funding for the Taltson expansion?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Yukon amount the Member has made mention of actually falls in Canada’s Green Infrastructure Fund, is the term that’s been used. There are a number of things that we’ve gotten ready for. We have a number of proposals that are ready to go as we engage in those levels of discussions. The Yukon project was the first to announce this program, is what I understand.
We’ve got quite a number of initiatives that are in the pipe, as we call it, that works with the federal government; a number of departments to get the funding and resources up here in the North. That fund is a cost-shared program, 50/50. We have the appropriate Ministers ready to go with projects we feel might be able to work. Some of those are ongoing projects already.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member a supplementary question. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just wondering, I don’t think we’ve had a discussion on what we should spend the portion of our Green Infrastructure Fund on and we haven’t had a discussion on whether it should go to one project like the Taltson expansion or whether it should be scattered across the Territory in various projects. I guess it sounds like that decision has been made by the government and I’d like to ask the Premier if that isn’t the intent of the Government of the Northwest Territories, is to look at a bunch of different projects and maybe the Premier could comment, too, on what our portion of the $1 billion Green Infrastructure Fund is here in the Northwest Territories.
This fund is an application-based fund. It is not set out per capita or an allotment made out. Traditionally, for example, when a federal program and dollars are announced, if it’s a billion dollars, we qualify for just over $1 million. So this is not the case. This is project by project. We are using, for example, though the list has not been compiled in the sense of all potential projects, but because it’s cost-shared, we have to come up with our own dollars and we tend to use projects that are in the system already established. We have a number of projects, as Members are aware, that are in the Alternative Energy Program and that’s where we think that we might be able to tap into some dollars there as well.
Sticking with the federal investment in our Territory and opportunities to do so, I’m wondering if the government has any proposals before the federal government on the Growing Forward Initiative, which is a $1.3 billion fund that the feds have set up to spearhead some investment in agriculture in this country.
I understand that the Honourable Bob McLeod is working on this initiative and is prepared to come forward with projects that he’s been looking at or the involvement that they’ve had. So that is something that we’re tapping into as well. Part of the problem is we’ve been trying to get the details and what would qualify under these programs, and as that detail has become available, we’ve started to put the focus on some of those projects.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over in the Yukon they’ve accessed $5 million of that Growing Forward Initiative money already and that was announced back in April. I guess what I’m trying to suggest to the government is we had better get on with this and put our proposals in, find the money, and try to leverage what dollars we have with the federal government’s dollars so that we can get some projects started here in the Northwest Territories. The question I have: Are we going to wait until the business plans in the fall before proposals such as Mr. McLeod might have are going to come forward in front of Members so that we can move forward with these proposals?
The process involved, number one is to qualify for some of these areas, and some of these are agreements that are in place that we have to sign with the federal government and then work with the criteria as well. I understand he has come to that stage and is ready to sit down with Members to give them information on that. Hopefully we will be able to get the time together and get more information on that. But it is in the system and it is very close to being finalized in the sense of agreement between the federal government and ourselves.
