Tom Beaulieu

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, affordable energy, the cost of living, reduction in diesel use in remote communities, microgrid technology, the impending carbon tax are all big, important issues, especially for the 26 offgrid communities. Today, we will focus our attention in this House on those issues.

Mr. Speaker, we have seen what is possible with microgrids in Colville Lake and what is achievable with similar technology in the communities. The communities have also seen what is possible with power purchase agreements and economic opportunities in Lutselk'e, and what can be realized in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to ask the Minister if that information gathered from that work by the federal government is available to us. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just have a couple of questions for the Minister on fire suppression. This is fire suppression for the wildland fires. I know that we have a MARS agreement with other jurisdictions, but I would like to ask the Minister if he could commit to ensuring that all of the trained firefighters and extra firefighters in the NWT are utilized before we enact any agreement with another jurisdiction? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, is that cleaning up liabilities for only contaminated sites that are the responsibility of the GNWT? How does the contaminated sites retained by the federal government work in as far as remediation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Same topic. Could the Minister tell me if this money is mainly money used just to leverage other money from the federal government? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, on page 70 I'd like to just ask the Minister about the area of contaminated sites and remediation. On the contaminated sites and remediation there's $319,000 in there. I see that this is for developing programs and policies to manage and remediate contaminated sites. So I guess my question is: is there a budget and how does the whole budgeting work between when you actually are remediating the site, when you hire a contractor to go in there and do remediation, where does that money come from? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 26118(2), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 20172018 with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question was: Is the intermittent water quality information sufficient to determine whether or not there needs to be any mitigations, and I am talking about mitigations as any development that is on the Talston River, mainly the dam in the spillway, so that's what I'm referring to. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In my Member's statement I spoke about the federal government putting $50 million aside for remote Indigenous communities to transition off diesel fuel. Has this government had any discussions with the federal government as to that $50 million fund?