Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, the practice in this Assembly as well as other Assemblies…. This isn’t made by another government and remain with that government. I’m unable to go into material and request that information. But I can ask our staff to prepare some summary notes and sit down with the committee on that.

Mr. Speaker, in making a decision as to whether to go to any meeting, whether it’s provincial/territorial or FPT, in this situation one weighs all the options and tries to get as much information as possible. I was aware that there is going to be a First Ministers’ meeting with the same subject matter: the economy and the impact it will have on Canada. At that next meeting we will have the Prime Minister there, and that would lead to a more fulsome discussion about the initiatives that may be taken or may not be taken. That’s what I weighed.

In fact, as well, we had communications go down the...

Mr. Speaker, I think the Member can answer that question by looking at the Hansard that was taking place, printed in this House, and what was happening. The fact is, in operating as we do, in a consensus style government we have to weigh the options of where we go and the influence we may have at a certain meeting. I kept in touch with the Chair of the Council of the Federation, Premier Charest, and followed up with him and will look to have another meeting with him directly in the weeks coming.

I agree to disagree, is maybe the term we can use. I look at the cost of living and I think a lot of us look at the cost of living as what we have pay out of our pockets to survive here in the Northwest Territories. Some of our steps are taken to mitigate that cost of living.

I agree that the cost for the real product is still there, and we have to work with that. For example, one of the other things we are working on through the Minister of ENR and his department, along with the Arctic Energy Alliance, I believe, is rebates on stoves and other equipment for homes. That, in the short term, can...

Mr. Speaker, the process the Power Corp has looked at…. It has in fact joined the Department of Public Works and Services’ Petroleum Products Division so that they can bring the volumes to a larger amount, thereby seeing some additional savings. We are topped up in most communities because of a resupply scenario by barge, which has to be done in our spring and summer operation. Unfortunately, this year it was one of the highest prices we faced, and that’s an issue that we’re all going to have to face as the colder temperatures hit us. We’re looking at options where we can try to lessen the...

I would agree with what the Member stated. The way we look at how we generate our electricity costs or just the generation of electricity and how it’s distributed across the North and then how we as a government deal with that side of it…. Again, our Territorial Power Support Program does limit and help with the cost of living in our more remote communities. If that full cost was passed on, then more dollars out of our constituents’ pockets would be spent on just utilities.

But we do need to look at other things. That is why, for example, the discussion paper has been launched by Minister Bob...

Mr. Speaker, I fully understand the need to take action when it comes to power generation in the Northwest Territories. Hopefully, as we look at the initiative as the Assembly, we’ll be able to look at options. I know that through the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee we’re looking at bringing a paper forward that looks at all options that we should look at here in the Northwest Territories.

As for the General Rate Application that is before the PUB right now, one of the other circumstances that we have to realize is the PUB has placed, for example, a 15 per cent cap on increases or...

Mr. Speaker, it’s not very often I get a chance to recognize a constituent down from Inuvik: Conrad Baetz, who works out of the North Mackenzie District for Indian and Northern Affairs and, I believe, his mother, Greta, beside him.

Mr. Speaker, if a Minister — I’ll use ENR as an example — deals with a department issue and has a group of individuals or a conference, the department would pick up those costs on that side of it. The ministerial piece would be if the Minister himself were to meet with Members, for example, or Ministers from other jurisdictions on other related matters. But if a Minister is specifically meeting and that has been set up to deal with the department or deal with counterparts across the country on files within the department, the department would cover those costs.

Mr. Speaker, we follow the same pattern as employees would have for annual leave, for example. Sick leave, though, is different. You can accrue that, but there is no payout at any time for that piece. Annual leave, there is payout for that, as there has been in previous Assemblies.