David Ramsay

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to the Member’s last question, it could be both. It depends on which community and the dynamics of it.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Member for the suggestion. Yesterday I mentioned that the remaining balance in the NWT Opportunities Fund is earmarked for economic pursuits in the territory. I haven’t seen a proposal. I know the department is working on a proposal on where and how that remaining balance should be spent and whether or not it’s on hydro, I would have to go to the deputy minister. We haven’t seen a plan come through FMB and that should be coming through FMB and hitting my desk, hopefully, sometime very soon. As I mentioned yesterday, when that happens our hope is to be able...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have that discussion with my colleague Minister Miltenberger and we’ll get back to the Members on that. We’ll see what we can make happen, Madam Chair. Thank you.

I appreciate the Member’s comments. Those are the type of comments that we’re looking for as we advance the discussion on energy through the Energy Plan.

We recently had the energy charrette. Those are the types of things and comments that we need to hear. We are going to have to present alternatives and options, new options, on how we get this done. I look forward to that discussion. We have to continue moving in the right direction and, again, through planning that’s how we’re going to arrive at the alternatives and make some decisions on where we go next. That has to happen. I thank the...

Madam Chair, absolutely. We certainly will look at suggesting a joint meeting. That could happen. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my left I’ve got Mr. Peter Vician, deputy minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and to my right, Ms. Nancy Magrum, director of shared services, finance and administration, ITI and Environment and Natural Resources. Thank you.

Madam Chair, I have a lot of sympathy for the outfitters. I have constituents that are in that business that have camps out there north of Yellowknife. The fact of the matter remains. We’ve been funding this for the past four years. The Bathurst caribou herd are not scheduled to be surveyed again until 2015. By the time the results come in, that’s 2016. At some point in time, we are going to have to ask ourselves a question about how long do the taxpayers of the Northwest Territories continue to fund these outfitters that are up there with no caribou to hunt. I can’t put it much more bluntly...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank all of the Members for their general comments in regard to ITI’s budget. I’ve made a number of notes. You’ll have to bear with me as I go through a number of the points that the Members made.

A number of Members covered some of the same topics, so I’ll try to get to everything. Hopefully I don’t miss anything. If I do, it could certainly come up under detail if Members have specific questions.

The first issue that was brought up was the cost of electricity and what we’re doing about it. I think we really need to look at bringing down costs system-wide. We’re...

I look at the Aboriginal Pipeline Group and its involvement in the construction and development of the Mackenzie Gas Project, and that is a good example of the Aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories potentially owning one-third of a major piece of resource development here in the Northwest Territories, a $17 billion pipeline.

My belief – I know Mr. Bromley and I have worked together for a long time – is that we have to look at opportunities to invest in resource development. Whether it’s the Aboriginal development corporations or governments or our government, in fact, that’s how real...

Yes, please, Madam Chair.