Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Minister put her finger on it exactly: having that dependable, reliable service in the community makes people more relaxed and, I believe, more healthy.

Once again, I would like the Minister to comment on working towards having full time nursing. If it is working towards 2011, I would be very happy to work with her, along with the community, toward more frequent, consistent visits. Thank you.

Absolutely, I’m glad that the Minister wants to follow through this commitment of restoring nursing services to Wrigley. Just with respect to Dehcho Health and Social Services, they are a very efficient and effective board for our region. I, too, commend them for that.

I also know Wrigley’s got a facility. The nursing position is within their budget, and all they’ve got to do now is allocate that person year and move them to Wrigley. I’m not too sure what the difficulty there is now that there’s going to be some safety there.

I still do not know what the possible reason is for not following...

I don’t think residents of Nahendeh believe that for a minute, because we have two distinct different operating communities. We’ve got South Lake, which uses a different utility provider, and then you’ve got a community like Nahanni Butte, which uses NTPC, and their rates are almost a dollar different there. How can that be? That’s why I believe in an internalized review of the NWT Power Corporation. How our people pay for this cost should be reviewed and internalized before we ask for an increase in rates for all the communities. I’d like the Minister to see if he can do that.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation with regard to the general rate application increase for 2008.

Once again, as in my Member’s statement, I said that residents disagree. I’m here to ask the Minister: is there a way to delay or defer this process until we get a good review of the NWT Power Corporation? Another way of doing business there is to look at reducing the operating costs. Can the Minister address that? Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Does the Minister know if a part of the general rate application community hearings — I think that’s what they’re proposing — will be in some of our smaller communities, in particular the Nahendeh communities?

I really believe that there’s got to be another way of doing this, that the Power Corporation is the one that submits the general rate application. They must have the ability to at least look at their operating costs to be able to determine some savings there, some efficiencies, and then use those internalized savings to pass on to the customers. Then maybe there is an increase, but it doesn’t have to be straight to the pocketbooks of our NWT residents.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, the NTPC general rate increase for 2008, I’d like to address this burning issue for Nahendeh residents: a proposed increase in power rates to the NWT smaller communities. I have long been a champion of a standard flat rate system. That’s right: a one rate power zone. This, I believe, brings fairness and equality to all NWT residents in regard to having an essential service, electricity, in all our homes, the same access and the same benefits no matter where you live in our NWT.

One year ago I asked the Public Utilities...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I was very happy to hear that our government took the initiative to comment on the events that occurred last week with the apology to residential school victims and survivors that was given by the Prime Minister of Canada. It was very timely, and the feedback over the last ten days of so has led me to believe that…. It was something that was long overdue. It was something that was needed to be heard by all the people who went to residential schools.

I, too, spent many, many years in the residential school system. When I gave my Member’s statement last week, I...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommend the Government of the Northwest Territories conduct a review of its Web site policies and report back on whether the Web site policies comply with the Official Languages policies, guidelines and legislation.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommend that the Housing Corporation include a risk-management component and a strategic plan that identifies and analyzes the risk for the NWT Housing Corporation’s plan for specific actions with details addressing the identified risks, include measures to report on the success of the action plan, and evaluate how the risks are mitigated in a timely fashion.

The committee also recommends that a program evaluation of home ownership programs be carried out to verify how much existing programs can contribute toward the goal of self-reliance and...