Michael Miltenberger

Thank you. I would suggest it’s had a marginal and probably positive impact on the overall broad cost of living in the Northwest Territories. This is entirely a voluntary fee. People do not have to use plastic bags or buy bags at the store. As well, we also know that we are extending the life of our landfills, which has a significant cost for all of us who are dealing with Municipal and Community Affairs. You look at the cost of maintaining landfills and putting new ones in place, it is significantly less burden on the environment, as the Member himself pointed out in his comments, where you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A recent report commissioned by the Gwich’in Tribal Council has raised some questions about certain financial aspects of the devolution agreement-in-principle. The Government of the Northwest Territories does not agree with most of the conclusions of this report. We remain confident that the financial provisions of the devolution AIP are fair and reflect the best deal available. I rise today to set the record straight and address some of the confusion this report may have caused.

First of all I would like to point out that devolution is not just about money, it is about...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There’s been active involvement by the Member for Nunakput as well to make sure this project says live and on the rails. The intention is to be looking at establishing a tower this coming construction season and move this project forward, once again with the assistance of the Member for Nunakput to make sure we can have the community support needed to bring this project to fruition. Thank you.

I don’t believe so. I’d have to commit to get that clarified.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Housing Corporation pays the government rate which is not the same as the subsidized rate. It’s the full cost of power.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2010-2011; and Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2010-2011. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we have to do both, which is what we’re doing. We have to make the long-term commitment to change how we generate, distribute and deliver energy, electricity, heat. We have to minimize our reliance on fossil fuels. In the meantime, after 16 years, as you will well recollect the discussion in this House of coming up with a fair rate structure for Northerners that doesn’t in many cases cripple small businesses. It’s something that is an interim measure as we take these longer-term steps to restructure and rebuild our infrastructure in terms of the generation and delivery of...

Those are all good questions that, hopefully, we’ll get addressed as we do this critical debriefing, as the weather subsided and services restored, and we can take that careful measured look at what happened and what needs to be done to avoid this type of circumstance in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The fundamental approach was that the current... Before we implemented the changes, there was a commercial power support subsidy that was not being used that the commercial businesses were paying the fully burdened cost with no subsidy in the communities, hence some of the power rates in stores and such of $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, $30,000 a month. What we’ve done now by setting rates for the thermal communities is we’ve lowered the cost per kilowatt and the benefit now to power commercial businesses is significant and fairly applied and they don’t have to ask for it...