Floyd Roland

The high cost of energy is a serious issue in the North for a lot of our communities, smaller communities, as well as the forced growth costs of the government that we deal with. It is an area where we will have to do a review. We’ll have to look at options, and options will be presented, whether it is in rate structure or structure of our power support program — all of those factors would have to be reviewed and the options presented to Members to see where we go in this area.

I wish to advise Members that the Hon. Michael Miltenberger will be absent from the House today to attend a provincial and territorial housing ministers’ meeting in Vancouver.

The question is best put to ourselves, or at least myself, at this point.

The Public Utilities Board will review under existing conditions and operations. At one point, questions were asked about the PUB and a one-rate zone. The PUB has put it on record that they're working with the existing rate structure that's in place. If we're to change that, it would have to be directed from this level, this Assembly. That is something that would be looked at.

We have a number of factors. One of those is the strategic initiatives committee on reducing the cost of living. That will be looking at a number of...

Mr. Speaker, earlier today, in my sessional statement, I highlighted the number of areas that we are going to use as strategic initiatives that align themselves with the goals of this Assembly. As we find the revenues to reinvest, that would be combined through reducing overall expenditures of government — identifying dollars within departments that could be reinvested — our goal was to try to invest, starting this year, and building up over the life of this Assembly.

I’ll have to put a caveat on that. Depending on the choices we make and the quality or quantity of the overall number that we...

I give notice that on Friday, February 8, 2008, I will move that Bill 1, Interim Appropriation Act, 2008–2009, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, I did receive a letter from the committee regarding this project. They requested a number of pieces of information, and we are very close to having that all together and providing it to the committee. We’ll have that before this session is done.

I'm sure the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, once they get a record of what is stated here, will maybe have that discussion. They have put in place, right now, their equity piece. They forwarded it. That doesn't mean that can't change or shares can’t be bought out in the future, or a number of factors fall in place. The fact is the lower their equity, the lower the guaranteed rate of return. In a sense, that helps us as a government, but it doesn't help them out. I will look to putting the information together and providing Members with the information we can get to them.

Mr. Speaker, the process starts off within the Executive and working with the appropriate departments to get the information, and at that point deciding where we proceed and what avenues we go through.

The concession agreement talks about a maximum $5 million equity portion. The Deh Cho Bridge Corporation has informed us that they do have their equity in place. It’s not up to the $5 million mark. That has an effect on the rate of return, of course.

Mr. Speaker, number one, I haven’t asked the department to provide a legal opinion. We know the facts that are on the table. We’ve been around this Assembly, this floor — a number of us, at least — for a lot of years and know the process.

Looking at the information available, I’ve made the comment…. The fact is that if we were to make a move now, we are increasing our liability in that area. Do I need a legal opinion? I think we could go get one, but I didn’t seek that. I did look at our risk position on this whole project, as this topic has been around for quite a number of years.