Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are some resources. Interestingly enough, ITI has a permafrost individual. We know and we’ve seen, and I’ve had discussions with and work with, to a certain degree, the university is doing work as well. In fact, some individuals have spent good parts of their professional lives in the North looking at the permafrost issues, the very issues that the Member is talking about. As we see what’s happening and try to adapt to the impacts of the warming and the melting of the permafrost, the slumping of the banks, the impediment, it can cause rivers and creek flows and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The discussions are focused and engaged mainly with Alberta. We had some preliminary meetings, as well, with BC and Saskatchewan, but the Alberta negotiations are the most critical. They are, we believe, within about two meetings away and the next meeting is scheduled for April. So sometime subsequent to that, before fall, we hope to have the negotiators prepared to initial an agreement that will lay out and meet the mandates that they were given from us and from the Alberta government.

Once that’s done, we have to turn our attention to concluding the agreements with BC...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Given the way these projects seem to evolve, we believe we would be in a position to be responsive and be able to have that information by the time it’s required to make a business decision. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Ernie Daniels, deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources; and Nancy Magrum, director of shared services of ITI and ENR. Thank you.

Thank you. The intent with the Power Corporation, we’re focusing on generation of electricity. We’re a major customer in the community. We’ve been on diesel for a while now, ever since we got the word that the gas was being depleted, so that we would free up as much gas for the community as possible.

As we proceed on the liquid natural gas initiative, clearly there’s going to be opportunities for the community-at-large to take advantage of this as well. We have to look and balance the costs that are going to be there with liquid natural gas versus the projected costs for the synthetic gas...

Mr. Chair, I can’t say, with any degree of definitiveness, that that discussion has been held. I can tell you that wood chips are very labour intensive when you are operating 24/7 on essential services heat in the wintertime especially. I will raise the issue with the Minister of Public Works and Minister of Health, but I’m not sure if wood chips has been actively considered just because it is a whole different… It gets you into a whole different area of issues to deal with in terms of staffing and harvesting locally and having dry wood, especially during tough times like Christmas and New...

In that particular chapter, there is a recognition and an opportunity that should there be heretofore undiscovered waste sites, there’s an opportunity for the parties to get back to the table to discuss the fate of that particular waste site. Thank you.

Thank you. The Power Corporation is working hard to conclude some of the arrangements. So I’m hopeful that in the life of this sitting that we’d be able to stand up and make a public announcement. What we are looking for, or the long-term target, of course, that we’re looking for, is to be – if all things fall in place as we’re planning – by this coming fall, in October, November, in Inuvik we’d be able to have an alternative source should we be able to confirm and sign all the necessary contracts to, in fact, embark on putting in liquid natural gas as an alternate source. So within the life...

Mr. Chairman, when there’s new construction, wherever there is biomass possible, there’s discussion underway with Public Works. They have done it in Fort Smith, Hay River, Yellowknife, Simpson, and we’re working our way north. I understand that, yes, there has been, as it pertains to the health centre, discussions with our folks, Arctic Energy Alliance, the Public Works folks as well, to see if that’s going to be a money saver. We believe it is because we are installing it into the school and in Transportation at the airport anyway, so we’ve done our own numbers. So, yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, plus the Sahtu travel budget was almost nonexistent and it was always funded from taking from other pots. So the folks there didn’t have a lot of ability to do the work they needed to do. So between that and anticipated increased demand because of the oil play is the answer. Thank you.