Michael Miltenberger

I don’t believe I’ve used this phrase since the last Assembly, but in due course and the fullness of time as these discussions advance through the charrette, we will look at moving as fast as we can. The question is going to be, how do we get from talk to action? How much money are we going to be able to put into these initiatives? Clearly, the intent is to seriously move with great alacrity on this particular issue. Thank you.

We started this process in the last Assembly with spending the time to develop our biomass strategy. Part of that strategy was to build a market, then look at building the industry, and we’ve done that. We’ve converted a significant amount of our own facilities to biomass. We’ve taken those savings and reinvested them. We’ve set up incentives to encourage people to switch to biomass. We’ve now just completed two FMA agreements, the first of their kind, forest management agreements, with the people in Providence and the people in Lutselk'e to lay out access to a source of wood fibre, so that we...

The most viable site, in my mind, is a place called Storm Hills, between Inuvik and Tuk, where they’ve been doing wind mapping for some time now. We’re looking at the viability of that site, and we know that if we put in six, seven megawatts, eight megawatts of power between Tuk and Inuvik, you could cut the diesel consumption for the production of electricity in half, and wind is free. We just have to work on the money. Part of the commitment here going forward with the charrette is the investment in those types of very fundamental community infrastructures that will allow us to make a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we intend to maintain our commitment and enhance our commitment to alternative energies, to biomass, and one of the questions that’s going to be posed tonight is what type of regulation and legislation do we need, in fact, to allow us to enhance woodstove use, biomass, solar use. Are there specific pieces of legislation that other jurisdictions may have, because we don’t have any right now. We have legislation that governs oil and gas installations and those types of things, so we are very interested in that. We’ve got pathfinders in the regions. We’re going to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 39, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, November 3, 2014, I will move that Bill 39, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015, be read for the first time.

I also give notice that on Monday, November 3, 2014, I will move that Bill 40, Appropriation Act, (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2015-2016, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m going into my 40th year both in working for the government and being in this Legislature, and I spent a significant amount of time when I was in government as a manager, and I have been a Minister for a while, and I can tell you that the direct appointment tool is absolutely critical for meeting the objectives of this Legislature. I can tell you that if we were sitting here and we had every position filled and no vacancies, we could be having, maybe, a legitimate conversation about direct appointments. But when we’re sitting here with hundreds and hundreds and...

I wish to table the following document, entitled “Traditional Knowledge Annual Report 2013-2014.”

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First I just want to reassure the Member and the people listening in here that we do all this money management with complete regard for our fiscal situation, which is why we get the clean audits and which is why we have the Aa1 credit rating and we managed to absorb some of these unexpected shocks because we always keep in mind looking after the taxpayers’ dollars as if it were our own. So I want to reassure the Member of that.

When the project was started, it was flagged right from the beginning that cash flow adjustment would probably be required, we just didn’t know...

There is an arrangement with the federal government where we can put in for payments for every 10 kilometres completed, and the arrangement is quite timely. There is a two to three week turnaround. The $40 million will only be drawn down based on progress, so for every 10 kilometres we’ll go back and we’ll get a payment. I’ll get the deputy minister just to reiterate for us the percentage. The majority of the money that’s going to be coming forward, at least 60 percent will be coming from the federal government. But with your agreement, Mr. Chair, I would ask the deputy minister to speak to...