Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government has committed to eradicating poverty and I fully support that statement. Looking at the Anti-Poverty Strategy and action plan, they contain many good ideas that will tweak the system and gently increase overall wellness in our communities, but tweaking the system is not going to eliminate poverty.

Our northern cultures put a high value on helping each other get through difficult times and making sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to get ahead. Our efforts to eliminate poverty should reflect those values. Despite our best intentions, however, the...

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks for that information. I’ve never known NTPC to be much of a wind expert outfit, but it would be great to see them get into that. They’ve certainly held up a lot of wind projects in the past.

Just on solar energy, again, I’m a supporter of the Solar Energy Program. I think the net metering discussions that have been going on through the board and thermal communities and so on, with participation of the department, are very productive. It would be great to see a net metering program get off the ground.

One problem there is NTPC’s reluctance to fund or waive the...

I thought it was an average cost for the last several years and there are four positions. Again, I believe the board is about 12 people. Is that right, or is it five people? Maybe I could get that figured out. Just with four positions for the board that would obviously be about $500,000, probably more, and any travel would eat up a considerable amount. Then there are the board members on top of that. It just seems like an awfully good deal to me. I’d be happy if that’s the full cost though. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m just wondering, following up on earlier discussions, if we expect the electronics side of things to be paying for itself. Is there an opportunity to generate some revenue aligned with the costs of the program, if we’re that far along in our assessment? Thank you.

I guess that means that maybe one doesn’t exist, but anyway, we’ll have to wait and see. So, so be it.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Speaker. That sounds like a great plan. I believe I heard him mention the glass doors and I know that is an issue for some people, as he said, that are on canes or crutches. I must just throw out a little personal anecdote. Having ended up in the hospital having my head stitched up, you can actually try and walk through those doors sometimes. I don’t know whether that’s an issue, although you might want to have a decal about eye level. That’s all I had. Thank you for that response.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister. Just on the timber permits and licences, I know we’ve signed a recent forest management agreement and the Minister has mentioned that stumpage fees will be modest. With this activity, will there be any likely revenue in this area in the foreseeable future? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to be clear. What has been the change with the shift of this section to the new section on water resources in terms of our ability to actually regulate use of water? For example, with the fracking applications that we see, we’ve already seen the application for Conoco that’s fracking now and all of a sudden they’ve hardly gotten along on their first one and they’re already upping their requirements dramatically. Eventually much of that water will be stored in perpetuity out of the ecosystem. Does this department now have authority, or will it be developing...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be happy to have those discussions, which are huge in their absence as of this date. But what the heck, we have 25 days to go or something. I think it’s a very legitimate request. Where is this written down? The Minister has been saying what’s actually fact. I want to see the legislation. I want to see the policy. Would the Minister provide that? If it doesn’t exist, tell us it doesn’t exist and the intent is to do it. The Member, my colleague Ms. Bisaro, requested, asked where is this legislation or this policy. The Minister responded, well, let’s have a...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks to the Minister. So, we are addressing this through both O and M and infrastructure budgets. That’s my understanding. Maybe could I just get a brief description of where our $3 million from O and M is going on this program?