Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the end of this sitting nears, we are only six to eight months away from a territorial election and with it an opportunity for concerned citizens to take a leadership role in the governance of our people, lands and resources. We have all heard criticisms, frustrations and suggestions from residents and constituents. Now is the time for individuals to consider stepping forward to provide leadership and to put their ideas into action.

As John Todd, an alumnus of this House, was fond of saying, “If you don’t like the government policies, get elected.” Politics is not a...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this is where obviously there is a matter of scale here for the smaller communities. They’re not going to have the volume to be able to provide the same services and so there’s a real opportunity for government to plug in there and provide the subsidy needed. This is a cost recovery project for the government, and of course we will be enjoying some financial benefits from it, so it’s a good opportunity for us to make sure that the very best services can be provided and make even the smallest communities competitive and give them an advantage for participation in...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just had one question here. I know there’s so much expertise in this division, and I know the Minister is aware that we’re putting a Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line that’s meant to enhance the access to the Internet and opportunities for education and health and so on services. I wonder if I can get the perspective of this department.

First of all, has the department looked at that project? Are they providing advice on that project?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t think it’s our responsibility alone, obviously, to provide infrastructure for industry, so I appreciate that expectation that industry would participate in reducing the cost to residents and taxpayers.

The one other I had was I was out with Premier McLeod when we erected the wind monitoring pole or tower out at Giant Mine. That’s been two or three years ago now. I suspect it’s been three years ago. Do we know what the findings have been there and do we have the wind resources for wind generation in the capital city? Thank you.

That’s all I had there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know in the community energy systems that we’ve looked at, we’ve had a couple of feasibility projects done in communities such as Lutselk’e and Whati, perhaps others, I think maybe Deline, where things are technically feasible but they’re very costly to do. We are in a point, as we’ve heard from the Minister, where fossil fuel prices are down right now. This was highlighted by the Diavik expert on wind. You see this with successful businesses, when prices drop and we know it’s going to be so likely for a period of time, maybe a year or two or three, who knows, they...

I understand that $234,000 would be added to the $2.35 million, so bringing it up to roughly $2.7 million for this current fiscal year. Will that resolve the issue, or are we anticipating more in the future on this? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just had one other area I wanted to explore. The science is showing that because of the fugitive, it’s called, and actual emissions of natural gas development from unconventional sources, that’s through exploration, development, decommissioning and transport, and conversion of natural gas into LNG and back and loading it onto trucks, unloading it from trucks and so on, makes LNG from unconventional sources as bad as coal in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. So I see that there’s a commitment here or a mandate for examining the potential for liquefied natural gas to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that response. We’re looking at $27 million, Mr. Chair. I think it gets to the point in terms of investing in the personnel, the staff and whatnot in a facility in the North, this would be a very significant contribution to employment in the North as these amounts go up. I’m not hearing opportunities for it to go down. I would say it may be worth, given that we get tax returns and so on, at some point figuring out where does it become feasible to entertain a northern facility even with all the staff involved and so on. So, I just throw that out. I heard your...