Bob McLeod

We’ve endeavored to have a very representative group at the Energy Charrette. We have over 130 people, I believe, that will be there. It is our expectation that with the facilitators that we have, with the speakers that we have, the outcomes will be focussed in that direction and certainly we are very prepared, as the ENR Minister has said, and the Finance Minister has said, we are prepared to move in that direction, pending the outcome of the charrette. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure whether the Member is attributing the comment to myself or to some anonymous source or not, but by all means, it is our intention to make sure that the charrette is informed as we go forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. The Member recognizes that there’s an election between now and June of 2016, but as a matter of course, we want to make sure that these types of conferences are successful. They provide for a lot of development and bringing investment into the community. By all means, we would do whatever we could to support it so it would be successful. Thank you.

Thank you. You can rest assured that any project, if it were ever to come to fruition, would have to go through a very rigorous regulatory process that we have in the Northwest Territories, that would identify issues or conditions that would have to be approved. We’re very interested in moving to the next step to determine the economics of such a possibility and whether it is not only technically feasible or technically possible but that it’s economically feasible. So that’s where we’re looking to move to, is move on to the next step. Thank you.

What we’ve been discussing is the need for an energy cooperation agreement. There are significant numbers of transboundary issues involved with energy. Not only energy, but water, transportation, tourism, medical health care, what have you, and in almost every instance we are very intertwined with Alberta.

When it comes to energy specifically, we are all part of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, and I don’t know if you need another history lesson in that regard or not, but we have very similar issues when it comes to developing our stranded resources. If we don’t have transportation routes...

I guess you will just have to wait for tonight where we address that front and centre in both my remarks and in the Minister of ENR’s remarks. Certainly, we recognize that subsidizing is not sustainable, and at some point, very soon if not now, we have to have a very sustainable method of providing electricity going forward. Thank you.

Over the past two assemblies, the role of NTPC has evolved. We now have the Ministerial Energy Coordination Committee, where all of the Ministers and departments that have responsibilities in this area come together, and the Power Corporation is working much more closely with the government to fulfill the objectives of the government, and certainly we are recognizing that one size fits all is not necessarily the way to go. We are looking to the Energy Charrette to point us in the right direction. Thank you.

I believe the mayor of Inuvik is part of the Energy Charrette, and by all means, the outcomes of the Energy Charrette will be in the public domain. So, they certainly will be available to the organizers of the Inuvik Arctic Energy and Alternative Technologies Show. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve had no discussions with anybody about this conference, other than the Member e-mailing me a press release advising of this change. I expect that in due course the money, or some portion of the money that we contributed for the oil and gas conference would probably be earmarked for a similar conference in 2016. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that as part of their review we will be meeting with the Aboriginal Head Start people to determine how best to move forward. At the request of the Members, we will be approaching each of the communities. My expectation is that those 10 communities that have Aboriginal Head Start, even though they are federal programs and federal money that is slated to expire in 2016, that for those communities that have Head Start and don’t want a junior kindergarten, we will accommodate them. Thank you.