Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Once again here I see, without informing us on the thinking and where things are at, we’re being asked to spend the taxpayer’s dollar and I think that’s the under-riding and overriding concern here. We did have some discussions on this. I know the Premier will recall committee sent a letter back agreeing with the need for better communications but raising a number of concerns about the report.

Just to follow up on the number of positions we’re talking about here, we’re talking about five here, $185,000 apiece. The briefing material said… Well, let me start with the review...

Again, Mr. Chair, we’re doing all these things and they’re not working. Is there not a lesson to be learned there? I mean, we hear over and over again that people want real supports, not big money going to big multinational companies and subsidies and $300 million highways, you know, that are going to cost us to try and maintain. People have real needs right now, and if we were delivering those properly, we’d be retaining people, we’d be giving them the quality of life that will make them want to be here and we will be attracting those skills. So, without that reasoning laid out in a strategy...

Again, not something I can support. We have extreme unemployment in parts of the Northwest Territories, and we’re travelling, there are international programs here and so on, and I’m all for immigration, but my understanding is there’s a lot of people trying to get here, and I don’t see how we’re spending over $300,000 on this when we have already so many people who, with some training, could start to fill in these sorts of things. We’ve got the students graduating. The schools in Yellowknife are some of the best in the country, so we know we’re producing capable people. What are we not doing...

I will take that as a no, they won’t protect the people of the South Slave from that excess power charge.

This government seems willing to make decisions in a policy vacuum and without input, any input, an iota of input from Regular Members or Aboriginally owned communities, companies and consumers or communities, for that matter. As a Regular Member, I am acutely aware of the lack of such a policy and am uncomfortable, to say the least, to leaving such decisions to Cabinet’s most recent whims.

My question is: When can we expect a rigorous, comprehensive and collaborative process to develop the...

I will let that stand for itself. Government has decided to support communities in opening their franchises for power delivery and distribution, suggesting that there is money to be saved, as the Minister just said, and that the cost of living will be lowered significantly through competition. The cost of power generation is as significant, or more significant even, than distribution.

Is the Minister now also prepared to give communities the discretion to open power generation to competition in order to fully address power costs for both our consumers, the environment and our communities? Mahsi...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize some constituents from Weledeh today: Joe Walsh, who has just been mentioned; also Lois Little I see up there, and Carole Robinson, Joan Hirons. There may be others. Welcome to the House.

Mark Heyck, our mayor. It’s always great to see him here when he can get here. I’d also like to recognize the MLA for Nelson, Mr. Woods from the Northern Territory. It’s really great to have him in the House as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I completely agree with the Minister. My comments are in line with that. For example, I see development of the energy policy with our new responsibilities, and particularly renewable energy, as some real opportunities for spending some of those remaining dollars, and I think we need a debate on whether it’s best needed there or any other area such as that that committee might come up with versus the communications side of things. Committee did offer comments with respect to the communications side of things that we weren’t convinced that we needed a change in structure...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess where the debate becomes important is this 900-and-whatever-thousand dollars, over ten years that’s $9 million. These are significant dollars that we’re talking about, and we know that there are very serious needs in a number of priorities – and I know the Premier and the Minister would agree – and we have not had that debate on where these dollars would go towards the delivery of our new priorities. That’s talking about the $63,000 million, $65 million. So that’s a process problem again.

The last communications we had from the Premier on this was that the Cabinet...

No question.

I appreciate the Minister’s comments but, I mean, many of us take a completely different view. It’s that we’re not doing the right things to retain our people. We are training some of the best people in the world, very professional people coming out of the Northwest Territories and they’re leaving, or not returning, after education. Why is that?