Bob Bromley

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...

Could I get the Minister to agree that it is now the lead, Public Works and Services is now the lead in our Energy Policy, as per their description, activity description and that this would be appropriate for them to take on?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to check on that contract service, the slight increase over last year’s. I’m just wondering if there are details available for that. Thank you.