Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Capital Estimates, 2017-2018, Government of the Northwest Territories." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

No.

Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member may have no idea of where he is going, but I know exactly where I am going. I am going to try and put this government, with the assistance of this Assembly, in a position where we're able to make further investments into our mandate in the remaining years of our Assembly.

As to specific projects as to where this money is going, we have a number of corridor projects that we have identified as some priorities of this government, but those are not all. The money that we're working with here is not just for capital, but it's also for O and M, to put us in a better...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is the latest version of the "Contracts Over $5,000," I believe is the document the Member is referring to, will be tabled during this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I can't commit to meeting for the technical team. I can commit to working with the technical team or communicating with them that there is an interest to have some further discussion with them, and, if they come back with a positive, then we will let committee know. I do commit to working with the technical team and seeing what their availability is for further meetings with the Regular Members or others that may be interested. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, according to the NWT Nunavut Spills Working Agreement, all spills or potential spills must be reported in a timely fashion to the 24hour spill line. In the case of a ship that runs aground, Canada Coast Guard, as I said before, is the lead agency for response component on behalf of the Government of Canada, and Transport Canada is responsible for the management and governance of Canada's marine oil spills preparedness. ENR will be involved in communicating critical aspects of the incident, and we can provide assistance when Canada's agencies request it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The federal government has given an indication that any carbon pricing mechanism used, the money would actually stay in the jurisdiction where it is generated. So there could be opportunities there for some investment in infrastructure, and in our meetings with the federal minister we talked about the fact that we have 22 of our 33 communities on diesel. We need to get them off diesel. There are opportunities there for some federal investments through the green infrastructure and any other pots of money that we may be able to access to help us reduce our emissions. So we are looking at all...

We recognize that the proposed carbon pricing is going to have an effect on people across the Northwest Territories. Having said that, we are going to undertake our regional public engagements this fall to inform the development of both the new energy strategy, get some feedback from residents, and I believe it's starting on October 25th and 26th.

There will be a schedule that would be made public, if it's not already. Also we have an on-line survey on the Department of ENR's website to get some public feedback. But we are having five regional workshops, regional public engagements, and we will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize my wife, Judy, who's had to put up with me for 37 years so you all know that she's extremely strong. I would also like to recognize a constituent from Inuvik and my official agent, Mr. Denny Rodgers, and seated next to him is Jiri Raska, I think, with Inuvialuit Development Corporation or Regional Corporation. Welcome to the gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following four documents entitled "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 142-18(2): Status of Regional Recruitment Program," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 143-18(2): Impacts of GNWT Job Losses," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 158-18(2): Aboriginal Representation on the GNWT Public Service,: and "Follow-up letter to Oral Question 270-18(2): Reform of the Canada Pension Plan."