Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have two questions, in followup to my Member's statement, for the Honourable Premier. I would like to ask the Premier: will the Premier be working with organizers to participate and to make a funding contribution to the proposed charette? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It would be helpful if the Member would provide who these organizers are and how much money they are looking for. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In my statement, as I stated earlier, the Gwich'in Tribal Council, along with a number of other Aboriginal governments and community governments in the City of Yellowknife and surrounding, from what I understand, they are looking for in the neighbourhood of $135,000. I am sure the Premier will see another proposal here shortly. From what I understand, there was one submitted earlier, but I am sure another could be resubmitted.
Also, my next question is: to make sure we are not reinventing the wheel, the charette's participants will need to know clearly where this government stands on its energy and climate change planning. How will the Premier in his role as the chair of the Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Energy and Climate Change make sure the charette's organizers have transparent and uptodate information on the GNWT policies and planning actions, for instance, providing a summary document and sending staff representation?
I am very much looking forward to the proposal. I am not exactly clear whether this is a private sector initiative or it is something for government. At any rate, we have a team of people from the Departments of ENR and Public Works working on public engagement and the development of strategies that align with our longterm objectives. These teams include senior officials of the Government of the Northwest Territories.
The Government of the Northwest Territories has a responsibility to lead the development of an energy strategy and a climate change framework, and that is what we intend to do. We are, of course, open to participating in stakeholderdriven engagement sessions. We may consider providing a summary document, depending on where we are at in the process of developing an energy strategy and a climate strategy because, from what I understand, what is being proposed is in June and, if we are only halfway through the process and there is nothing finalized, we don't want to mislead anybody. In principle, we are very open to working with all stakeholders.
It sounds promising. I would like to ask the Premier: what project priorities can we expect to see the Ministerial Coordinating Committee take action on in the coming year?
The priorities that we pursue have not been determined, but they will be informed by our energy strategy and our climate change framework that we are developing. Certainly, we are pursuing funding from federal sources for various projects, including Taltson hydro initiatives, Inuvik wind projects, and projects to reduce the use of diesel fuel in Northwest Territories communities.
