Michael Miltenberger

I would like to point out that one of our areas of interest where we’ve invested a considerable amount of money has, in fact, been on development of our solar strategy and the solar arrays that we’ve put into Simpson, one of the largest in the country up to the point that it was built, and the pilot project that we’re working on in Colville Lake, where we’re putting in a significant amount of solar power with batteries to look at how much we can maximize penetration into that service system so that we can minimize the cost and reliance on diesel. Now, as the technology has improved, and I’ve...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Out of the first charrette came the direction to look at the issue of the distribution and the transmission grid build-out where we could hook up the Snare system and the Taltson system and investigate the cost of an intertie to Saskatchewan where we could potentially move cheaper power from places like Manitoba and north. We did that. It came back in at about $1.2 billion, probably more than double what we had initially estimated. Rather than keep pursuing that or not do anything, we have recognized the need to change our focus to generation, and not just small...

We work with communities on a community-by-community project basis at this point. Where there is an interest, for example, in the Member’s community of McPherson there has been waste heat work done. We have been studying the viability of using fast growing willows as a source of biomass in addition to all the other standard programs of general applications that are there for all businesses and individuals to apply for. We’re also, of course, very interested in working with communities as they do their own energy plans, to see what long-term planning needs to be done to ensure things are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 40, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2015-2016, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We’d be happy to sit down with committee if there are concerns by committee on the process going forward. We’d be happy to have those discussions to make sure it is as fulsome, integrated and engaged as possible as befits consensus government. Thank you.

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.”

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. This project has met our expectations and was a construction project with a finite timeline. If we could have that same type of success with a lot of the other, say, operating mines, they would be happier and so would we. So the project has met expectations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Having lived through the construction of the bridge, I can assure the Member that getting it done on time has very many benefits, and preferably on budget, because the Legislature clearly takes a dim view of projects that came in over budget and over time. This particular project has been, from the start, a four-year project, with the first three years focusing where the majority of work is on the building of the embankments and the final year of the finishing and putting in the top layer of gravel. While we are attempting to accelerate the project, the intent is to...