Tom Beaulieu

I do believe that the department feels that they have been assisting with the situation. My understanding is that although the unit that was in jeopardy was moved, the member does not live in that unit so it continues to be in an area where it has flooded or has flooded frequently. We are looking at that now, as I indicated. We do plan to resolve the issue if we can, if we can work in that area and do something with the culvert, as the Member advised. If that is a solution, then we’ll work towards that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct that both ourselves and the Housing Corporation have spent substantial sums of money to resituate the house, rent equipment to remove ice from that area. Recently, the Member has indicated to me that there may be a solution, so we’ve just begun discussions with the department from my office to talk about that solution of maybe placing the culvert at a different angle and maybe using some heat trace so it doesn’t freeze in there. We’re just beginning to look at that now, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we are anticipating that the cost of gasoline will be lowered in the communities as well. In the case of gasoline, we want to deliver the gas before we make the adjustment. It appears to be a little more volatile and the gas price could actually go back up and we do believe that some of the gas prices have been rising down south and we could feel the impacts here and in other communities. We are going to wait until we do purchase and deliver before we lower it, but we do anticipate that it would be coming down from what the current prices are now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to update Members on some recent activities of the Department of Public Works and Services with regards to fuel prices in communities served by its petroleum products division.

Recent changes in the market have seen oil prices go from all-time highs to record lows over the past year. This current market pricing has provided the petroleum products division with an opportunity to lower its costs and pass on these savings to residents.

The lower wholesale prices for fuel have made it possible to pass savings on to residents now, during the peak of the winter heating season...

The petroleum products division will become the fuel services division, so all of the functions at this point where we’re buying fuel from the rack and then delivering and then having distribution at the community level, those costs and then the functions and the positions that are directly associated with those functions of delivering fuel to the communities will be the cost of fuel, and that’s how we will continue to determine the cost of fuel in these communities that we provide fuel services to.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In June 2013, a recommendation came from the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning from the Regular Members. It recommended that Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources be created into a separate department. Cabinet looked at that in May of 2014 and looked at that recommendation and made the decision that we would consolidate one of those functions, well, two of them actually, the energy and the petroleum into Public Works, so that was the reason for us making that move over to creating that division under Public Works and Services.

As the Member is aware, back in 2011-12 we put a bit of a delay on the planning study so that we could complete the planning study for Norman Wells as Norman Wells also provides to sort of a regional health centre. Some of the designs that we get from our consultation in Norman Wells will be incorporated into Fort Simpson. We would also be specific to what the community wants in Fort Simpson, as well, so there is certainly room for consultation from the community.

In Hay River, when we built the health centre, there was opportunity for community input, so this will be the same thing. Fort...

Thank you. More of the consultation portion of the work that Public Works is doing is determining what type of items would be associated with planning studies. We’ve looked at the needs assessment, operational plan, functional program and feasibility analysis for the specific health centre. So that was what the initial meeting with Public Works was about and then from there the decision was made to release the RFP to complete the planning study.

Yes. We try to, within the rules and the regulations that govern the revolving fund, we have some flexibility, so as now, when the opportunity comes where we anticipate the fuel costs continuing to go down for a little bit more, we’re lowering the cost of fuel for all of the communities where we provide a service, and the cost is going to be lowered from anywhere from seven cents to nine cents a litre at this time and anticipating some more costs of fuel being lowered when the delivery actually occurs.

Actually, we feel that with these three divisions consolidated under one area of Public Works, it would be easier to develop comprehensive energy policies and strategies. We find that we’ll also be able to synchronize our planning for all of the energy functions. We also will be bringing people from ITI, three positions from ITI that were in energy policy and planning, along with the Northwest Territories Energy Corporation and positions that were there, along with one position from Environment and Natural Resources.