Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of MACA. The athletes in the small communities are really doing well. Based on the early TEST Olympic skiers program they had up in Inuvik, is there any type of pilot project considered within the department, along with a partnership, to look at a program that once worked well and developed Olympic athletes? Is there something like that within his department for the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We would like to see all of our young people in the small communities, or in all of the Northwest Territories pick up physical activities, sport being a good one. Through this government in the 16th and 15th Assemblies we’ve dedicated a lot of funds to that effect, and we’re starting to see the results of it now. I talked about the Arctic Winter Games a couple years ago when we had 27 of the 33 communities represented by athletes, and I think that indicates a lot of the good work that some of our sporting partners are doing. The Aboriginal Sport Circle, Sport North, the Rec and Park Council, they’re delivering a lot of programs out to the communities with some financial support of this government. So, we’re starting to see the results of that now and we continue to try and build on that because we could potentially have the 2023 Canada Winter Games here in the capital and we’re looking forward to having our athletes compete and do well in that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m not too sure if I’m suggesting that we’re pulling away from the good work that the communities and the people in the North are doing. What I’m looking at is a concept, an idea that we focus on a group of athletes in the community that would measure them in the results of the home life, the school life, the athletic abilities, you know, moving them through the stages of their growth and their ability. Like TEST did one time, we could look at this one program. Whether it be volleyball or hand games or basketball or martial arts, that we have a group and we measure them and say this is a good program. It can be equivalent to the TEST program that we have something here to develop these students through grades 6, 7, 8, 9 to Grade 12. That’s what I’m looking at. I’m not too sure if the Minister is looking at something like that. Thank you.
It’s not something that we are looking at right now. I know one of our sporting partners might be looking at something along those lines. But our sporting partners do provide a lot of workshops and that in the communities. They identify potential up-and-comers. We have a number of programs within the department that supports. Once they get to a higher level we have the Elite Athlete Performance Grant and we’ve had a lot of uptake on that. We have a lot of athletes competing and doing well. So, there are a number of programs that we offer.
Again, the concept is very good. One of the challenges that we may face with a lot of these potential high performance athletes is having to move them all into one centre, and there may be some opposition to that. But these are things that we can identify as we go forward. Because, as I said before, we do have the Canada Games potentially coming to the NWT in 2023 and we want to make sure our athletes are ready to compete in that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I always thought this would be a good concept to consider given that the limitations of some of our small communities and that we have to do without facilities such as the larger centres, that would help our athletes move into another level of category of their sporting abilities. I thought that something like this would be good for our small communities. For example, even with the youth hand games, the kids get really excited going to other schools to play hand games, and this way you keep them in school and keep them moving forward.
So, I just want to ask the Minister, is that something that could be considered and maybe flushed out over the couple months that we have here?
We need to take all these into consideration because, at the end of the day, getting our kids active is most important first of all. We have a number of active after-school programs that we support. We have, as Member Moses spoke to today, the Traditional Games championships going on here in the capital for the next couple days and it’s a great opportunity for, as the Member said, a lot of kids from communities getting together, trying out the games of other cultures. I’ve had the opportunity to go there a couple times and they enjoy that. They’re actually quite competitive.
Getting our kids active is the first step. Identifying potential athletes that might want to move on to the next level would be another step. Again, our sporting partners work very closely in identifying a lot of those young athletes that have potential, and we try to develop them. Again, I mean, this is something that we need to take into consideration going forward because, I think, as we’ve seen from the Yukon model, they have some great training opportunities over there. We’ve seen it in the Canada Games. I think they got a couple of gold medals, silver and two bronze medals. Actually, one of the golds was won, as Mr. Blake said, by somebody from Fort McPherson, so we’ll take some of the credit for that.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
QUESTION 715-17(5):
NET METERING PROGRAM
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We all know there’s a high cost when we’re paying some of our utilities within our residences as well as commercial with the businesses. Today I have questions for the Minister of Finance in terms of our Net Metering Program. I know I’ve brought it up before. We hear Members’ and Ministers’ statements about we want to diversify our economy, support small business, support people in the communities.
I want to ask the Minister of Finance, with our five kilowatt cap that we currently have within our Net Metering Program, has that been reviewed and looked at so it allows people an incentive, such as businesses who would like to install solar panels into their communities to cut down on the costs that they incur over the winter months and be able to utilize it during the summer?
Can I ask the Minister, will that policy be reviewed so the kilowatt cap actually increases?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That cap has been removed.
If the cap has been removed, how has that been made aware to the people, residents and commercial businesses fin the Northwest Territories that that cap has, in fact, been removed so that they can go ahead and move forward into looking at creating some solar?
That program is handled through the Power Corporation, and they’ve been taking care of the communications. If there are specific concerns from the Member, then I would be happy to talk to them about what may be needed to be done extra to ensure that those concerns could be addressed.
In terms of this initiative and the kilowatt cap and that being removed, we also have this Energy Efficiency Incentive Program. I was wondering if the Minister would look at seeing if there are any dollars that can go into that program to create more incentives for businesses and residents to take this initiative and this program into their own dwellings and businesses.
The energy programs have been consolidated in Public Works and Services including those incentive programs. Those incentive programs are funded. There are different types of programs for energy-efficient appliances, for assistance with installation of solar and other alternative energy sources, so that opportunity currently exists in those programs and will now be handled by Public Works and Services and the Minister of Public Works and Services.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Hawkins.
