Louis Sebert

Certainly we will keep the Members opposite updated.

There are no NTCL sites that fall into this category 10. Not all of the NTCL leases fall under the category of operating sites, and as such may be subject to provisions of the devolution agreement that allow us to assert to Canada that they have responsibilities for remediation of the sites. This assertion does not necessarily result in Canada's acceptance of a liability for the site, and there is a process laid out in the devolution agreement through which the GNWT would have to develop and provide evidence to support the assertion.

Mr. Speaker, it is important when we're looking at this issue to look at the situation in Hay River. It was the municipal decision of the Town of Hay River and its people to seek proposals for power. NTPC was one of the bidders. ATCO was another. It was a town decision to go with that NTPC proposal. There have been no decisions made for Yellowknife, but it will be the city that decides whether or not to go out for proposals when the current franchise expires in 2020.

The government has initiated an energy strategy which the House heard about last week, and we will be inviting proponents to attend and discuss energy in the NWT. ATCO is one of the invitees.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my wife, Anne Sebert, and her son Peter Reid in the audience.

While we do meet with the RCMP, we do not interfere, if I can put it that way, directly with their day-to-day operations. As I mentioned earlier, I think that the enhanced criminal record checks provided for in the Criminal Records Act are a good idea protecting vulnerable groups. So I am not asking for any change.

Thank you. In the year 2000, the Criminal Records Act, the federal piece of legislation, came into effect. It provided for an enhanced criminal record check in situations where vulnerable people, either children or other vulnerable people, were involved. This was seen as a way of protecting the vulnerable groups. I appreciate the Member's opposite concerns as there is also balance between individual right and the rights of the vulnerable. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Within the Department of Lands, the assistant deputy minister of Planning and Coordination is leading and coordinating the NTCL file, supported by a director, regional superintendents, as well as our lands inspectors. Our team has been proactively meeting with officials from across the GNWT, including ENR, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, and the Department of Justice. Meetings occur regularly and, in fact, there is another scheduled for this very afternoon. We are treating this matter very seriously.

Mr. Speaker, this is a complex issue. The company is not yet bankrupt. They have a lease, and we need to wait for the CCAA process to proceed. However, the department has conducted inspections of lands that are leased to NTCL. This includes lands that are directly leased to the company by the GNWT, as well as those leased through head leases given to the Town of Hay River. No lease compliance issues have been identified. Lands will be working with other departments to identify areas of particular concern that would be in need of additional environmental assessment. Again, we must wait for the...

The GNWT has been subsidizing the cost of power for NWT residents, most recently through the $44 million to offset low water in the North Slave. I certainly agree with the Member opposite that finding ways to make our energy system more sustainable is crucial, and the government is in the early stages of partnering to tie into the continental grid.

We have also been partnering with communities such as Colville Lake to introduce solar arrays and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. I look forward to hearing what other ideas are out there and the results of the energy strategy that I referred to...