Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Once again I’m very pleased to support this motion and happy to see the committee bringing it forward. I think again it is an opportunity for the public to be heard on this.

I know that the committee is stepping out a little bit. This is not, again, a typical order of things, but it speaks to this being a different act that is dealing with the public purse and has the added responsibility of ensuring abundant opportunities for the public to be heard on their shepherding. Once again, I support this motion and I appreciate the committee bringing it forward. I will be...

I appreciate that information. I guess my last question here in this line is: have other jurisdictions started actions under similar legislation? Is it underway now or are they contemplating it, and does this legislation position us to join them hopefully to enjoy the benefits of associating with a much larger jurisdiction and the capacity they bring?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to make a note that I am not a member of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, but I did participate in some of the review and I appreciate that opportunity. I had occasion to make a number of comments and have the committee consider those. I particularly appreciate the chair’s willingness to consider a couple of suggestions for motions.

One of the things we’ve heard a lot from the public on various bills, but I would say particularly this one and another one before the House, is a desire to have some input to the regulations and this is not right...

Thanks to the Minister. I noted in the Minister’s comments that NWT residents have a higher rate of addictions to nicotine than most jurisdictions and I think we’re all aware of that. I’m wondering what the consequences are of this to any future considerations of actions under this legislation. Are there consequences to being a much higher rate of addictions than in the provinces, for example?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to reply to the opening address with comments regarding progress towards creation of an Anti-Poverty Strategy.

Inside the Government of the NWT, progress had been very disappointing. Members are well aware of the call for an Anti-Poverty Strategy from 29 organizations including the City of Yellowknife and a who’s who of the NWT’s social justice advocacy groups. It’s perhaps unprecedented to see so many major groups come together with one voice on one issue calling so loudly for action by the territorial government. This is grassroots action at its finest.

Regular...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is obviously a fundamental clause. It provides some guidance on how the fund will be managed. I just want to note that the public spoke very clearly and fairly consistently on this aspect and thought that there should be arm’s length administration of the fund and that it should not be under the trusteeship of the Financial Management Board. An arm’s length agency could indeed report to the Legislative Assembly and could be subject to verification by an independent auditor. This would allow for and promote public involvement in the administration and guiding...

I appreciate the Minister’s willingness to look at this. I think he brought forward some good points. I think a suite of energy sources is probably the way to go. We need to transition to a greater and greater proportion of renewable or at least low-carbon sources. I think the Minister is well aware of that. I’d like to note that in those communities there’s already been feasibility projects going, for example, for a pellet manufacturing plant out of Simpson, geothermal, hydro projects and so on that the Minister himself has been involved in. Given his comments again and this recognition of...

I appreciate those comments from the Minister. It’s good to get some of that history. I guess and I suspect others have tried to get a good discussion going on a resource tax during this term and I regard that to mean some research done and some considerations presented to us by Cabinet on what would be involved, what the difficulties are and so on. I’m wondering if the Minister is planning to raise this in the transition document, and resource taxes are just my sort of pet idea, but how is the Minister going to profile this in the transition document of the idea of getting some dollars into...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of energy, Minister Bob McLeod. It follows up on a statement from the other day on the conversion of communities to gas energy systems.

Norman Wells and Inuvik are up against the wall with their natural gas energy systems and, of course, we know the high cost of converting communities, yet we appear to be going down the road of committing new communities to the inevitable end of non-renewable energy supplies. Feasibility studies have been prepared on the conversion of Tulita, Fort Simpson, and Fort Good Hope to natural gas as the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to follow up on a few points, actually. The first one is people have made reference to the amount of time that the funds will remain in a sealed account gathering value, assuming we get some dollars in there. When this idea was first put forward, I know we had lots of discussions and I think there was general agreement that this would be an intergenerational fund and should be set aside for at least 30 years. Yet when the bill came back to us, Mr. Chair, I was startled to see that funds were put aside for only 10 years. I see committee has bumped that up to 20...