Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about the present Energy Efficiency Incentive Program and it doesn’t have a rebate option for insulation, doors or windows, and many of these products can be made here in the North and certainly those types of things make a big difference in heating your home through the efficiencies that they bring.

Mr. Speaker, my questions are directed to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources about looking at expanding the program to include things such as windows, exterior insulation and certainly doors. Would he be willing to do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the Christmas season I was helping a constituent with their Energy Efficiency Incentive Program and they were filling out the paperwork and asked me for some advice. I started to look at the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program that was created years ago and, of course, some great work had been done. Included are things such as rebates on washers, refrigerators, freezer chests, wood stoves, lightbulbs, and the list goes on. But what I happened to quickly notice was there was a glaring gap between the fact that there wasn’t any efficiency program design around...

Thank you. Apparently there’s been a housing agreement with the Northwest Territories and the Government of Canada. I wonder if the Minister could provide some detail on that, not just program detail but where we would see some of that initiative and detail roll out on the ground and where we will see that support. I think there’s a four-year program of money. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Stewart. With that said, do we have any particular market rental units in existence in any of the communities that aren’t being utilized at this particular time? If so, can I get a list of that as well as what the market rents would be charged? I assume a monthly basis for those particular units.

Mr. Chairman, I will be pleased to accept that. The Minister has already mentioned 36 market rental units and he said that’s adding to the 100 market rentals in the smaller communities, which is good. I assume with the 36, would the Minister be able to provide the detail as to where those 100 market rentals are in the smaller communities? Thank you.

When the Minister says 40 replacements, we’re doing one for one. When he says the Housing Corp is doing 36 market, is that new, new, in the sense of new in a net context? If he could provide that detail.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s certainly well within the authority and the powers that the Minister can direct the department to start evaluating this rather than maybe pushing it off to a new Assembly and to sometimes get the decision by committee by saying, well, we’ll wait for committee to provide direction could take quite a bit of time. In short, the Minister is well within his ability to say this is something we could review and perhaps provide some input back to committee, and that’s what I’m looking for.

Northerners need an opportunity to help heat their houses more efficiently. This can...

I think most of us can agree here that with the operation of a house, a lot of money is devoted to heating it. Heat loss is a major contributor to poor energy efficiency if a house isn’t well insulated, the doors aren’t good and the windows don’t withstand the needs for cold weather here.

Is there a reason why doors, windows and exterior insulation aren’t part of the energy efficiency rebate program, which could go a long way to help Northerners heat their houses in a more efficient way? We spend a lot of time worrying about wood stoves, boilers, furnaces, toilets and lightbulbs, but these...

Now to the part about the motion being forwarded to all of his provincial and territorial Premier colleagues, waiting for that particular answer as to has he had a chance to forward it to them or speak to them about it and are we aware of any sort of initiatives being developed or considered. Thank you.

I appreciate that information. Is the Minister able to speak to how long some of those inactive positions have been kept on the books? If I wrote my number down correctly, I think he said inactive positions had come down from 271 to 218. If I am incorrect, I will let him state that for the record. What type of detail do we have on these particular positions? I’m more curious on how long they’ve been inactive. I mean, that’s essentially the question and time is up, so I’ll leave it to him to answer.