Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is there an opportunity to delay this? No, there is not an opportunity, as it’s been filed with the PUB and they’ll go through their process. The fact is that it is dealing with the cost of fuel for previous months and having to make up the shortfall. The more we delay, the cost to the Power Corporation itself continues to climb, and we’re going to have to deal with that. That’s where we are in that scenario. Within the existing operating environment that we have, the Power Corporation has to make up for its operational needs, and the rate base is the only way to do...

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that I’ve given correspondence to the Members that gives details of what framework proposal has been put forward to the federal government. I sent that package, as well, to the regional aboriginal leadership. We are going to have our next meeting with the regional aboriginal leadership at the end of November, and we will be able to have a much more in-depth discussion in that area.

I have already committed to Members, and I believe we do have some time still set aside, to go over this item with committee members. Again, we’ll follow through with that commitment.

Mr. Speaker, the Mackenzie Valley Highway is not $6 billion, if I heard the Member correctly. We know there have been groups doing their work. For example, the Department of Transportation used, I believe, $700 million as the target; that is an old number. We know that the Mackenzie Aboriginal Corporation did some work. They talked about $1.7 billion, I believe, in that neighbourhood; that’s their number.

We haven’t progressed to that and looked at those dollar figures. What we’ve been working on is coming up with a framework that would see a continued partnership between the federal government...

Mr. Speaker, the Executive and a number of the other departments that have the information pulled this together. We worked with a number of other people who had access and could give us information on times, and we pulled that together. But it was pretty well done internally on this one.

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the meeting’s happening and the time frame we did…. Again, I go back to the fact that I needed to have an idea that the federal government would take this up and carry it forward and on that basis feel comfortable that we could proceed.

Notification that the Prime Minister was travelling up was rather short, and as Members were aware, trying to get some time set aside to actually have a one on one about the Northwest Territories with the Prime Minister was quite difficult. That doesn’t give any excuse to the fact that we were there. And, yes, at caucus I probably should...

Mr. Speaker, Members make a point of how I haven’t communicated with Regular Members on quite a regular basis, and a number of examples were given. But we have listened to Members. We’ve approached Members with some solutions to some of the concerns that were raised. We’ll continue to do that — to work with Members to try to come up with the options.

But, Mr. Speaker, one of the things I need to do before going to Members is to see if there’s even any appetite from the federal government, in this case, for a solution. Otherwise, I’d be wasting Members’ time by coming and saying: here’s an idea...

Just earlier in the Member’s statement I was told to put the sails up and get moving, and now I’m being told to put the sails down and park it until I get word by word discussion with my colleagues.

Yes, we should have gotten the information to you sooner. In this case, because of the time frame, trying to get all the pieces together in a sense of regional leadership, getting that piece, having the Prime Minister come up to the Northwest Territories and trying to fit it in the schedule, I didn’t have an opportunity to share that with Members. I guess I’ll have to wear that one, as well, on the...

The Power Corporation doesn’t itself select what communities they go into. It’s through the PUB. They’ve set up a process and how others can also feed into that system of their review. I don’t have a list with me at this time. We can work with the Minister responsible for the PUB and provide that for Members. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t think that as the Government of Northwest Territories we should hang our hat on one initiative. I’ve watched previous governments stand up and make grand plans and talk proudly about where we can be and what we can do and at the end of that term sit down and say: well, we almost had it.

Devolution resource revenue sharing is one of those areas we’d like to get concluded in the life of this Assembly, but I also heard that in the last Assembly and the Assembly before that.

I would like to see what I think would secure our place within Canada: building the much needed...

I believe we just recently sent out a package to all Members of the Assembly on how the rate base is structured in their communities, from those communities that are on diesel, those that are on hydro, the administration costs, the amortization costs and interest costs on loans. All of that was put together to show Members just how much and to what percentage certain activities take up of that rate structure that impacts communities. That is one thing we’re doing; we’re looking at those costs. The Power Corporation, whenever it goes to the PUB, has to justify its operational requirements. That...