Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A quick question on contract services. I see it’s up about 30 percent this year. Am I right in thinking that might be related to building demolitions or is there any explanation that the Minister can provide for that leap in contract service expenditures?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s great to see all these students out here today in pink, and for those of us who caught the flash mob, we realize we’re in the presence of a bunch of great dancers, both students and teachers. Mahsi.

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During this budget review, I’ve been examining the startling figures for travel by GNWT departmental employees. For example, Aboriginal Affairs will spend over $13,000 per employee for travel in ‘13-14, or $520,000, over half a million for 39 workers. MACA anticipates $18,000 per employee, over $2 million for 115 employees. ENR projects $2.5 million in travel...

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. I know I have seen lots of individual projects where it was sometimes 30 or 40 years return, so I recognize the department has been doing some of that because of some other significant gains.

Would it be possible to get the same sort of information, essentially the 30 percent on heat demand, for our power demand? What is our proportion of power load that is met through renewable energy of whatever source, hydro, thermal and so on? That would be great. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do have some general comments and I will base them on the Minister’s introductory remarks so it will be easy, hopefully, to follow along.

I do appreciate the work that the department does in the area of culture and heritage, and I’m particularly pleased that our staff have managed to negotiate the $1 million-plus revenue from Nunavut to help with the storage costs for Nunavut-based artifacts. Those are important artifacts. They need to be stored properly and there is a real cost, so I appreciate the department figuring out how to get those covered.

I also appreciate...

That’s good. Obviously, I disagree with waiting for that. There are many, many examples – the Minister is familiar with them – where the GNWT plays a key role in establishing a new practice in a community in all kinds of areas, and that enables that community to enjoy and spread the benefits. I think we should be doing that here as well.

I guess I’m wondering, what has been the trend? In opening comments we heard a lot about the reductions in greenhouse gas, 25,000 tonnes I believe it was, and so on, savings in dollars and fossil fuel. Would the Minister have at hand, or could he provide what...

I think that’s it. I will look forward to that information, and I will be prepared to ask questions on the Environmental Liabilities Fund when the Department of Finance comes up.

Thank you for that information. I recognize that this division and department are really our hope for energy issues, and it’s very, very important work that they do. If I can drill down on that, so that means that, I believe we say as a government, our residents, any building has to meet the National Energy Building Code, and I believe I’m hearing from the deputy minister that right now there are no new energy standards for those buildings. We choose to go for the highest calibre within GNWT buildings, but in terms of other buildings that businesses or residents build, they don’t have that...

I’m not really asking for transportation costs unless there’s an environmental management aspect to that. The rest of it, in terms of meeting the standards for fossil fuel storage and what cleanup costs we have, what is our cost to replace the proper storage equipment for fossil fuel storage and so on? I appreciate the Minister’s commitment there, I just don’t want him to do more work than I’m asking for necessarily. Liabilities, what are our current and anticipated environmental liabilities within this division?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to table the document here that is very timely and addresses some of the aspects of our exercise underway in developing a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy. This work is put forward by Senator Nick Sibbeston, who is in the House with us today. It’s entitled, Plugging into the Future, Executive Summary. It describes some of the real success stories that science and technology have or might soon provide to northern communities and includes a vision of where we might go from here. Thank you.

Thank you for that information. I would say Health is very keen, based on our discussions in Health. It is understandable. If we could standardize so many things across our authorities, it would clearly help out this government in many ways. I hope that is possible.

My next question was: What is the schedule for bringing them on side? I guess we’re not at that point yet. I guess I would encourage the Minister to give that support. I am sure he can see the opportunities for efficiencies that standardization brings. We clearly have the capacity or the capability to take that on. That’s all I had...