Floyd Roland

Thank you. It’s an interesting and timely question as we discuss the Power Corporation and this process going forward. In fact, at one time in the history of the Legislative Assembly the Power Corp, I’m not sure if it was just the chair or the board chair and representatives of the board and potentially a senior manager or so would appear before the Assembly or through a standing committee. I will look, in fact, at initiating that process be re-engaged as we go forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as well, I’d like to recognize the two Pages down from Inuvik: Ms. Caroline Kaufman and, I hope I get this name right, Evodia Mutua, as well. Thank you.

Thank you. We need to be careful what we ask for. For example, communities have been telling us up and down the Northwest Territories, north, south, east and west, they want more authority in making those decisions for what they feel are priorities in their community. We can set the standards and tell them what they can have and can’t have. That’s the way it used to be. Members calling for those days to come back I think will have the NWT Association of Communities making some calls rather quickly as to how we’re starting to pull it back to the centre, as some would say.

So I’m prepared to sit...

Mr. Speaker, this whole Assembly decides, whenever we pass our budget, just how we deliver services in our communities. One of the things that we heard for many years was that communities needed to make their own decisions more often, much like tax-based municipalities do. So the New Deal that was established that is now into, I believe, its third or fourth year of delivery, that allows communities to make decisions. When you look at base-plus funding, that was incorporated in that so that it helped the smaller communities be able to deal with some of the higher cost issues and you look at our...

The size of our House, we go through the general election and there’s the 25 plus/minus seat structure that’s in place. Again, it’s a standard across this country that we follow. There are a lot of similarities we have with other jurisdictions that have party politics. In fact, the Member has talked about Cabinet solidarity and though there’s is no official opposition, it’s always understood there’s an unofficial opposition, which has worked rather well, I’d say, during the 16th Assembly and other Assemblies in the past. But at the same time, we do need to have a look at how we go forward.

Agai...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the very beginnings can start just as they have with a Member raising the issue of consensus government and our processes. We have touted much about our consensus style of government when we go to other jurisdictions and meet around the issue of consensus government. Many Members from other governments from the opposition parties are very impressed, let’s say, with the ability to gain information from the governing body or Cabinet, so to speak, and share that up front. That also places restrictions on Members when you get that information to hold that in...

It’s exactly the business case we’re working on, is to be able to sell the power to companies in the Northwest Territories that can’t do it for more, or can do it for less, to put it that way. Running the line, other than the scenario that’s been proposed, adds substantial dollars to the project, which would have to go towards the cost of a kilowatt hour, which would make it unaffordable, which means that we don’t have a customer base and that’s what’s driven this at this point. We would have to, as a government, decide if we wanted to do that and look at a different alternative routing that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the process that the Taltson expansion has been built on is built on a customer that has approvals, that is on the ground, that is benefiting the North through GDP development as we speak. The other projects that are there, yes, have promise for the future and we’ll need to try to incorporate that as we look forward, but they’re still years away from actually establishing if there’s a secondary industry, which, as we talked with Minister McLeod and questions were answered in this House, that that is one of the avenues we will have to engage in.

Right now the...

The Member uses an example of Wrigley, for example, of having no nurse located in that community, but there are medical services provided to residents within that community, not the same as Yellowknife residents, not the same as residents from Inuvik, but on a level that we can provide those services with an aim to improve them. For example, that’s why the Foundation for Change comes into mind. It is through the business planning cycle -- and that’s a four-year cycle that we’ve initiated in this government -- to look at the way we deliver programs and services across the North and how we would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity to update Members on the work being undertaken to advance the 16th Legislative Assembly’s priority of working toward a common vision for the political development of the NWT.

As Members are aware, the newly established Northern Leaders’ Forum is made up of a representative from each of the regional aboriginal governments, the Northwest Territories Association of Communities, MLAs Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Krutko and myself. We initially met in July 2009 to hold preliminary discussions about working on the development of a common vision for...