Bob Bromley

Thank you once again for that commitment from the Minister. I think it has been very frustrating as far away as Sachs Harbour where energy is so costly and people have taken action there and then found out after things were in place that they couldn’t afford to do it, to literally hook it up. So the facility sits there.

I’d like now to turn to our general renewable energy, energy efficiency programs. It’s no surprise to this Minister or this government that committee has wanted to see a major effort and expenditure in the energy area. We see huge opportunities for addressing many, again, of our...

It will be really great to see this get off the ground. We’ve been looking at it for some time. I’m happy that real progress is being made here.

My last one on the recycling aspect is, I still have people coming to me and really saying, you know, why will Cabinet not put down the price that they have to pay for milk containers in relation to what they get back. We do not want to raise the price of milk and this Minister has insisted on doing that. This obviously goes against our greater government goals of helping people and so on. Milk and the equivalent soy products are known to be really...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My thinking is in line with many of the comments that have been brought up. Certainly on the fracking side of things I guess I would like to note that we did learn a lot on the trip that ITI sponsored for committee. Unfortunately, despite being shepherded about by industry, none of this committee, to my knowledge, has ever visited a frack site. So we still have a tremendous amount to learn.

I would say what we do know is that there is some very, very nasty stuff that routinely is both put into the ground and much more very, very nasty stuff is brought up from the ground...

I didn’t excel in math, but two years are reported here and both years are about $450,000. So I’m not totally clear on where the Minister is coming from here. Thank you.

Thank you for that information. Just in closing, I’ve had concern with a lot of our energy dollars, like some other departments are actually left until the last minute in the fiscal year to be spent. Can we get a commitment from the Minister that we will get some of these things identified early on in the fiscal year so that we can actually be effective with the dollars and make better progress throughout the year, as opposed to saving the dollars until the end of the fiscal year and perhaps lapsing some of those dollars? I know there is a lot of work to be done, but I think if we get at it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that, on Thursday, February 14, 2013, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the Government of the Northwest Territories inform the federal government of our dissatisfaction both with the dismantling of the federal environmental protection regime and with the federal government’s failure to consult and inform this government on changes directly affecting our interests, the ensured integrity of our environment and the content of devolution negotiations that are currently underway;

And...

The Premier and I are on the same page with his last statement there. The previous bit, though, is only partially correct. The board said they had shadow people for this project that’s coming up but not for the rest of the work. There’s also the federal duty to consult and accommodate to meet federal fiduciary in Section 35 responsibilities. These may be federal but they are the constitutional rights held by more than half of our NWT citizens. When the federal government reneges on them, I believe we have a duty to lend support to NWT citizens under assault.

Was this government even informed in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement today and ask questions directed to the Premier. The federal government is the resource manager and the co-signatory of the land claim agreements. Two Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada environmental audits say under-resourcing of the boards is a barrier to speedy and thorough completion of reviews.

Does the Premier agree that it is, at least currently, the responsibility of the federal government to adequately resource the boards to carry out this work?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government’s latest rampage against environmental protection and this government’s silence in areas of critical public interest demand comment.

Thursday, the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board was informed of budget cuts. It will reduce its staffing by half, crippling its ability to carry out full consultative reviews. Because of the independent status of the board, the federal government can’t tamper with board decision-making, so repressive control is exerted through funding cuts, reducing and restricting the board’s ability to operate...

Thanks for that information. I assume that has to be done, sort of, this fiscal year. I don’t know where we’re at in terms of getting all the entities up and running of the number that we have, but I’d appreciate that information. So any more details before I ask my last one here. Thanks.