Bob Bromley

It sounds like there is some tragic circumstances here, but it doesn’t detract from the lack of succession planning, which is obviously gone here. I mean, we have to create an emergency before we work and plan in these areas, and I think this is the sort of thing we are starting to see in more places as we go through this budget, so I am glad it is happening now, but I hope in other areas, other divisions and departments, we don’t have to wait for that situation to develop.

I wanted to ask one other question. The new amended Commissioner’s Land Act has just come into force on February 14th with...

I’m afraid I swallowed that reassurance line for a couple of years on this and I wish I could be with the Minister on this, but it ain’t happening out there. I’m not saying that there aren’t some improvements in some areas, and perhaps in some communities there have been vast improvements. The situation is not like that with the communities that I work with and others that I know about. We’re not just talking a minor adjustment or a little adjustment here. I’m not sure what stabilization funds. I’d like to know how much we’re talking about in stabilization funds. We’re talking about 100...

Again, I appreciate Mr. Aumond’s remarks. I believe I actually am registered for that and I believe it is in concert with a non-government organization and so on, but a very progressive piece of work there.

I guess, I appreciate that approach, but I think that what we want to do at the same time given our, perhaps, privileged understanding of the situation, what is coming down the pipes, so to speak, is to explicitly make those connections, connect the dots here between issues. So I am glad it is in there almost inadvertently but necessarily, but I think that if we can start to recognize why...

That’s all I had, Mr. Chair. It sounds like those dollars are being well spent. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m having a hard time connecting this to the School of Community Government with the community energy plans that were required under the New Deal, but I’m wondering, we did approve community energy plans for all our communities as part of the integrated sustainability plans. I’m wondering where we are in implementing those and are we starting to see fuel costs, at least, energy costs, go down, albeit I recognize the payback isn’t immediate and we may have some capital costs and so on. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I wonder if the Minister could provide me with convincing information that that is, in fact, being done and that we do know what appliances are in our buildings and that we are not, in fact, continuing to pay for very inefficient appliances in many of our public houses. Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister’s remarks there. I’ll look forward to that information. Am I on the right page here? Is that funded? No. Thank you. I’ll leave it at that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I note the monitoring aspect of the programs and district operations. I note also that much of our public housing programs are delivered in thermal communities where the financial and environmental costs of power are the greatest and perhaps the opportunity is there for reducing those costs. As part of the monitoring responsibility, what surveys are currently taking place that can help us describe the current electricity demand in our public housing? I am thinking particularly of the appliances that are provided in these facilities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe this fiscal year we approved a special accelerated or extra special program in capacity building. That still remains a big issue in our communities and I’m wondering if we can get some kind of progress report on that. I’d like to ask the Minister if that program continues into this… Sorry, did I jump the page here?

I’m appreciative of the Minister’s sensitivity to my interests here. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to refer to the National Roundtable on Environment and Economy report recently released, wherein it was pointed out that the resilience of northern infrastructure systems will be essential for sustainable regional development and forsake our national and northern security interest for all Canadians. They note in there that some of the constraints on the whole process is lack of clear standards and lack of guidance, especially for permafrost regions where structural design standards or guidelines are...