Bob Bromley

Thanks again to the Minister. I’m very happy to hear that that analysis is being done. I also asked and pointed out where there were some possible federal resources for putting, say, 1 percent of the space available on the ground floor level so that the public and visiting public can experience northern art. That did not include the sale of art but it did include the performance, some small performance venues and this sort of thing. Has the Minister pursued those opportunities?

Yes, I’ll leave it at that, Mr. Chair, and I look forward to the briefing that the Minister has proposed, should committee take him up on that offer. Thank you.

What other energy efficiency measures are being taken with this building? I understand the structure of it; it is a nice block which is a nice sort of energy efficient start, but we know that our electricity rates are soaring, and I am just wondering if there are efficiencies being gained in that area as well as effective use of the heating that we do put into the building. Thank you.

I guess I might be interested in exploring that with a little more time, but maybe I’ll just ask, is it anticipated that it will be rolled out across the territory comprehensively all at once, sort of thing, if digitally we have that capacity and so on? Thank you.

Thanks for the Minister’s comments there. I have a couple of questions. Does the city know the timing within which they need to respond to the government for the potential to pursue things? What sort of deadline was given to them? The other two buildings are Stuart Hodgson and the Laing. Would they also be part of Yellowknife community energy system according to the folks of the city if they came back with a positive response to government questions?

Obviously, the Minister is circuitous now in his thinking. Private enterprise would be providing fuel in our communities if that was the case. The reason we are in these 16 communities is because private enterprise is not there to do that.

Can the Minister say, with a straight face, that at 40 percent savings on your fuel bill, there would not be the demand if that form of fuel was there and you had a choice between the two?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize Mr. Richard Edjericon, a resident of Weledeh.

I don’t really accept that argument. The demand is not there because the pellets are not there. In every one of our communities, of course, we have government facilities and they would also benefit and easily be able to contribute to any additional costs of this program. Recognizing that the department would have to struggle with the up-front costs of replacing those boilers in government facilities and so on. When we’re talking about 30 percent, 40 percent and greater savings, 45 percent, 48 percent savings, the payback times on those have been demonstrated to be quite effective and we do...

Thanks for the remarks from the Minister, although I would say he’s clearly wrong. We are not managing emissions of anybody but ourselves, the GNWT, and yet we have the authority to do that. That’s exactly the point I am talking about.

The Minister did outline the many costs; for example, residents who experience the startling pace of land slides, erosion into streams affecting fish populations, contaminant loads, damages to homes, shorelines moving communities such as your own, Mr. Speaker, and so on. We need to know what we’re dealing with here to provide this context.

Will the Minister...

We have had briefings in the 16th Assembly. I’ll leave it up to committee to get back to the Minister on that offer.

But specifically, I think it would be useful to know, for example, knowing what buildings we anticipate being brought down over the next three fiscal years, we know what their deferred maintenance is and the contribution to the sum of deferred maintenance costs. So it would be useful to know that as specific examples. Also some general estimates on the rate of increase of deferred maintenance on an annual basis, and that could be general. I’m not really asking about specific...