Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels is a priority of this government. We have taken initial steps in the 16th Assembly where we invested approximately $60 million over the lifetime of the 16th Assembly to that very end that the Member has raised. We are following all of the developments. We have looked at what Ontario has done. We looked at other jurisdictions. It is our intention to do so. Of course, our main concern is to make sure that we continue to provide energy and that we do it at reasonable rates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, International Women's Day on March 8th is a global day of celebration to honour women's advancement towards equality in all areas of life.

In the Northwest Territories, the Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories celebrates International Women’s Day by hosting the Wise Women Awards and celebrating the winners with the Bread and Roses Luncheon in the Great Hall of our Assembly. This year is the 20th anniversary of the Wise Women Awards.

These women are role models in their communities and provide volunteer, counselling and caregiver service to others. The awards...

I guess the federal government is trying to provide some certainty to industry and to level the playing field with other northern territories. Once again, I reiterate that this gives more credence to getting on with devolution so that we can make these changes that will benefit all of the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I guess, in our view, this demonstrates the fact that we need to move fairly quickly with devolution so that we can have decisions made by the people that are affected by those decisions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll redirect the question to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s actually quite a simplistic number. We expect that the revenues from devolution alone would be about $60 million a year. There’s 365 days in a year. If you do the math it works out to $165,000 a day. That’s not including all the money for the employees and the O and M and so on that would also be devolved.

As the Member may recall, we have been identified as a stakeholder and we were lumped in with all of the stakeholders when the federal government sought input. When we first came in as a government, the Premier and Cabinet, we were advised that we had to wait until letters went to Aboriginal governments before our government could find out the nature of these proposed recommendations. We have since met with Mr. Pollard and we have been asked to provide a written response to the recommendations, and that we would be part of the debriefing when the federal government debriefs the Aboriginal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of Canada is responsible for making those decisions and we would want to make sure that those decisions do not affect our devolution negotiations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re open to receiving any proposals that are brought forward by volunteers and non-government organizations and we would review them. In this particular case referencing Betty House, our government is only one contributor and generally the operator of the facility will be a non-government organization. In this case we found a way through the Building Canada Economic Action Plan to assist. I think in every instance we would try to find a way to assist.

The Member is correct; she got information in both 2010 and 2011.