Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the contractual arrangements we have for dispensing of fuel in the communities is done on a community-by-community basis and seeing who would be interested when we put these packages out for response from the public. The fund isn’t set up to affect the price of those contracts for delivery. What the fund is there to do is mitigate the increase that we would have to go forward with if the price of the product has climbed as much as it has. From last winter’s resupply through to this summer, there’s been a drastic increase in the price of product. By...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The stabilization fund is to do what we just spoke of, to try to offset some of the sharp increases. As well, it can provide for decreases in prices if there was surplus there. The way we are going now, we would find if we kept up the practice that we had in the past, we would be in a deficit position of close to $1 million if we didn’t make some of the changes that we had in the last year. Because of the act and direction given of full cost recovery, we would have to come in for some drastic increases. These latest increases are part of a result of going full cost...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe we do resupply by barge to six communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Joining me this afternoon from the Department of Justice is Mara Heder, and with me is the director of the petroleum products division from the Department of Public Works and Services, Mr. Mike Aumond. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to introduce Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act. The petroleum products division of the Department of Public Works and Services was established in 1972 to provide fuel sales dispensing and delivery services in those communities not serviced by the private sector. The petroleum products division currently provides these services in 15 communities across the Northwest Territories.

The petroleum products division administers the petroleum products revolving fund under the authority of the Revolving Funds Act and the Financial Administration Act...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, it’s a case-by-case review of what we are looking for. In this case, we were looking for office space. We are familiar with the community and went to the department with our own staff there on the ground in the community and did an assessment of what is available in that community and if it would meet the requirements for that particular office space. We were informed that there was only one suitable location available to us. On that basis, we made a decision to go to a sole source process. So it’s case by case. If there are other opportunities out there, if you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have been doing the work necessary to bring this facility back online. We’ve had a structural engineer look at it. We have a plan together to repair the issues that have caused it to close this year. The concern was about lateral bracing. Because the foundation was in such poor shape, there was concern it would not withstand an earthquake event that may happen. Inuvik is considered to be in an active area or active zone for earthquakes, so that was one of the main considerations taken. The work has been ongoing and is almost complete in that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we would be willing to look at a number of initiatives out there that can help people reduce their consumption of energy and the thermal scam idea is…

---Laughter

…thermal scan idea is one that is something we use on our own facilities, and when we travel in the communities we will make that available to community governments and we can look at seeing if it can be used for individual homes as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for the Department of Public Works and Services itself, we have looked at a number of initiatives for dealing with government assets and facilities. One of the things we are doing is in the area of thermal scan to see how our buildings are operating and how much heat loss there is and where that heat loss is occurring. That is an area that we are going to be improving on as well as the building practices that we now have in place here in the Territories. We know that adds cost to the facilities up front but feel that it is important over the life of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have an amendment to make on the bill.