Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, as I’ve committed to you and just recently followed up, I believe a letter is going to committee on the latest update there looking at some of those functions and the future definitely would be part of the conversation and discussion we’ll have. I think, one, let’s be clear, as we talk about partnerships in the energy generation distribution in the North, that’s the process we’re being engaged in with that. We’ve got these other two big ones that we want to do first and the biomass piece, the alternative energies are even a part of those processes as we go forward and need to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for that question because that gives me the opportunity to say that the Power Corp is involved, to a large degree, on a number of fronts to try to bring best efficiencies forward from going from diesel to gas turbines, for example, in a number of areas. The biomass work and the work that the Members have done and will be coming back to that committee with their work and the report will help us as we move forward on some of our initiatives that Minister Miltenberger spoke of earlier.

As the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation, I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we’ve lost the message in the sense of what it was all about. It was getting a discussion about what we could be in the Northwest Territories. Could we have a diversified economy? Could we have respect for our cultures across the Territories? Should we have the best education system across this country? Can we have a clean, affordable, abundant energy to help reduce the cost of living in the Territories? Things of that nature. Things that I think we can look at and say almost every government, whether a municipal government, to a certain degree, to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ll thank the Member for raising that question because it is a good one. It is an area of discussion that’s been held a number of places across our Territory, from youth to seniors to businesses. This is not an organization. There is no company. There is no mandate established. What it was, was an invite to participate that went out to quite a number of people that were invited and those that accepted showed up. I was invited. I originally wasn’t going to go but thought, well, if there’s a discussion about what might happen or what the possibilities are in...

Mr. Speaker, if the Member had approached me sooner, we probably could have started a discussion to see if we could make some adjustments to our planning scheduled around the sitting days. As I have committed, I am prepared to sit down and engage Members to see if there’s a willingness to do that. I believe, again, the motion was an Assembly one. If we could, even myself, as a statement, or through that, we could look at doing something of that nature. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member has pointed out, the Assembly of the Northwest Territories has in the past endorsed this, recognized that. We stand by that. Looking at the date and the time, we feel that is a commitment that still stands today. If Members would like to do something, we would be willing to sit down and have a discussion.

The Member is right in the sense that there’s been quite a bit of work done in the past governments and work with the federal government to identify positions that were in southern Canada, in Ottawa, that had a direct impact and relationship to the Northwest Territories and the three territories overall. We’ve done that work and it came down to identifying a number of positions that we felt could be moved north, and that initiative was pushed along.

I must say that this government hasn’t taken that information and moved it. Our focus has been the establishment of new positions and office that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for raising this concern. The work we’ve done on this comes in a number of layers. First and foremost we had a pan-territorial approach from the three northern Premiers as to making the pitch to Ottawa that the Northern Development Agency needs to be established in the North. Following that and putting that case in, I have worked directly with a number of the federal Ministers to highlight the fact that it makes sense, for a number of the reasons that the Member has raised, that we’re central amongst the territories, that our economic potential is the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Return to Written Question 6-16(3), I wish to table the following document entitled Federal Revenues from Non-Renewable Resources in the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the alternative energy process we’ve engaged in is one through the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee and Members to look at these alternatives. In fact, we’ve done it so that it doesn’t affect the rates, at this time, of how we implement some of the new technologies into our systems. We have to engage with the Power Corp at that level to see how we would do a full implementation. Again, looking at not impacting the rates of individuals. So that work is to be done.

The review itself that’s happening, looking at the Power Corp, the internal process was one of how it operates...